John 6 (Part 3) :22–47 • “I am the Bread of Life”

We're in John chapter 6. Open your Bible there please. John chapter 6. I knew when I started looking at this chapter in John, that we were going to take some time to get through it because there's a lot here. I mean, there's actually 71 verses in this chapter. But more than that, there's just a lot of incredible information that is here. And So this is our third part in this chapter. We're picking it up in verse 22. John 6:22. And we're going to read down through verse 47 this morning, and then, Lord willing, we'll take the rest of it next week. All right, here we go. Verse 22 and onward. On that, excuse me. On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side. Oh, for some reason my laptop just decided to go all the way to the bottom. Hang on. All right. All right, here we go. I'll start over.

Let's stop there. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, as we approach these verses this morning, and do our level best to unpack them here and see what they are saying. Lord, we open our hearts to You today that You would fill us with grace and insight and understanding. Lord, we just want to have open hearts and we want to hear from You. We want to hear Your voice. We want to learn from You. We want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So Lord, we come to You to tell You that we are dependent upon You to accomplish that. We pray, Lord God, that we might have ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts ready to receive. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So what we're reading about here in these verses today is the day after. The day after the big miraculous feeding of the multitude the 5,000 men. So they didn't count women and children, who knows how many people there were. Anyway, the people woke up the next day and Jesus was nowhere to be found. Now, they remembered that there was only one boat that had been on the shore there on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. And they knew that Jesus had put His disciples into that boat and sent them on across the lake to Capernaum. And Jesus had then gone and dismissed the people to the local towns or wherever they were going to camp out or whatever for the night. They all get up the next morning, they go searching for Jesus, and He is nowhere to be found on that side of the lake, and they're wondering what happened. So apparently during that early morning hours, some boats came and landed there on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. And So they got into those boats and made their way across the sea over to Capernaum to look for Jesus and ultimately found Him. It says in verse 25, that, "25 When they (had) found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?'" Now you're going to notice here, as we read through these verses again, that Jesus doesn't answer their question. He just goes on to talk to them about why they are there and what they're looking for. Wouldn't it be, I mean can you imagine Jesus giving an answer, well, here's the deal, I put the disciples out and sent them home. And then a storm came up so I walked on the water. And I got about halfway across the lake. Freaked those guys out! They thought they were seeing a ghost. So I told them, don't worry it's just Me. I got in the boat and suddenly we are at the other side of the lake. Anyway, how are you guys doing today, sort of a thing, you know. No, He doesn't say anything like that. What He does say is, He just begins to speak to them about their motives. Look what He says in verse 26 in your Bible,

In other words, not because you saw the power of God manifest through the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish, and you wanted to know about what God was doing here. That's not why you're here. He says, you're here because you ate your fill of the loaves. And so with that single statement, He exposes the motivation behind their coming, which was essentially to fill their bellies. They got a free meal out of the deal the day before, and now they wanted some more. So Jesus exhorts them saying in verse 27, and this is an important exhortation. I'll encourage you to pay attention here. He says, "27 Do not work for the food that perishes, (some

--- Bibles say that spoils,) but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal." Notice there are three things, essentially that Jesus is saying. Number one, He says, don't work for food that spoils. Number two, instead work for that which lasts, which the Son of Man will give to you. And then third He says, on Him referring to the Son, God has set his seal, or if you will, His stamp of approval. But I want to focus here this morning for just a bit on this first point that Jesus makes and that is don't work for food that perishes. Perhaps a better translation or rendering of that word work would be don't strive. Don't strive for food that perishes. Jesus is essentially warning us, that the things that we strive for, often at great physical, emotional and financial cost, all have one thing in common. Do you know what it is? They're temporary. Everything we strive for, everything this side of heaven, everything on earth that we strive for is temporary. Now, please understAnd that's all we know. I mean, apart from God communicating to us that there are things that are eternal, that there are things that are lasting, right? We wouldn't know. I mean, how would we know of everlasting or things that have a lasting value? If you didn't have God telling you that, how would you know? Because you don't know. I mean, in your scope of reality, there's nothing that lasts. Everything ends. Everything comes to an end, right? We live on this planet upon which everything at one time or another passes away. And yet Jesus comes along, and He exhorts us, knowing as He does, that there's nothing that we know of in our life that lasts forever. And He says, rather than striving after things that are going to end, why don't you strive after things that are going to remain, you know. And at the face of it is almost kind of an absurd sort of a proposition. But what Jesus is doing is He is revealing to us a different reality. One that frankly we wouldn't know, again without Him sharing. And that is, there is a place where things don't pass away. Isn't that crazy? You know, it's funny, like I said, there's nothing in this life that doesn't get old, or break down, or stop working, or whatever. And yet we get mad when things break down. Isn't that crazy? As if we've ever experienced in our entire lives, anything that lasted, you know. You have a mower and it stops working. You're like, man, I just bought that thing three years ago, and it already stopped working. And it's like, what'd you expect? This is life. This is life on planet earth. ---

By the way, it wasn't always intended to be that way. You do know, correct, that God created this world originally not to wear out. He did not create death. He did not create things that were going to stop working, and become just only temporary. God created things to last. He created everything and He said, this is good. What happened? The introduction of sin into mankind's realm of existence, brought about the temporal aspect of life. And things like death, and destruction, and corrosion, and decay, and all the other things that enter into this place where we live on earth, now become our reality. And so things are no longer eternal here on earth. They are temporary. They don't last. And yet heaven retains God's original design of the enduring and the timeless continuation of life. And Jesus is not only making us aware of the fact that there is a place where things last, which I know is a mindblower, But He's also inviting us to participate in that in the way that we can actually store up things here that, or there that will last. You guys remember He talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount? Let me put it on the screen. Matthew chapter 6.

Do not, Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where things are going to just moth and rust, destroy, and where thieves break in. I thought moth, I thought that was like old time ancient type stuff until I pulled... I had these sweaters and I pulled one out of my closet. It had holes in it. And I'm like, what the heck. I couldn't figure out where these things came from. And I showed it to Sue, you know. And she's like, well moth or, you know some critter. Man alive. He says, "...where thieves break in and steal." Ever had somebody break into your home and take things? He says, "but (instead) lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Wow! This is a revelation, you guys. There's a place where these things can last. Where good things can last. But Jesus makes it very clear that the difference between the place where they last, and the place where they don't last, is built into the nature of those two locations, earth and heaven.

The nature of earth now because of the fall of man into sin, is that it is temporary. The nature of heaven is that it is eternal, and it is lasting. And we have an opportunity to store up things where they last. Okay, so this is a great comment. I mean, this is a great thing that Jesus is teaching here to the people. Let's see if they're going to get it. Verse 28. Here's the response of the crowd, And "28 Then they said to him, (okay,) 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?'" This is it. You can kind of tell things just kind of went (whistle) right over the head sort of a thing. But this is, you know, this is kind of just the response of people in general, for the most part, when we hear about the blessings that God wants to give we go, okay well, what do I got to do? Just tell me what I got to do. And there's a natural tendency inside us as human beings to think this way. To think that, you know here's the blessing, so what do I got to do? I've even had people say to me, okay, this Christianity thing you've got going on here. What do I got to do? Give me the rules. Just give me the rules. Lay out the rules and I'll do it. And then, you know, it's not about rules, you know. It's about faith. But we just naturally gravitate, right, as humans toward this thing like rules. Have you ever wondered why legalistic churches are as popular as they are? Because they still exist. I mean, the Jews fell into vast legalism during the time of Jesus, and He had to confront it constantly. But you know, it's not like Jesus came along and legalism went away. Legalism has continued for, you know, a couple of millennia since then. And some of you might have come, your background might be some very legalistic style churches. And what I mean by that is they're based on rules. Had a gal write me this week, and she said, I've been hanging out with these Christians. And they say, that if you don't wear these certain kind of clothes, and never wear jewelry, and you only wear your hair this way, you know, you can't go to heaven. And that those were the rules that they laid out. She said, is that true? And so I had to write her back and say, well, that's a legalistic church you got there, Sweetie. And you need to go find a place where they're teaching the Word of God, and not misinterpreting it. But you know, this is, this is, this is, have you ever wondered why people still are drawn to that? Listen, there's something very comforting knowing what to expect, you know. There is. It's comforting to have somebody tell you, all right here's the deal, if you do this, do this, do this, do this, you're good. All right, there you go. Okay, now I know what I need to do, you know. And Christianity

--- becomes what we do, or what we don't do. Rather than what we believe, which is what the Bible says, it's all about. So anyway, notice our Lord's response to their question, what must we do? Here's what He says, Jesus answered them, run around the church six times really fast. Give 15 percent of your income to the Lord, and be a very good person at least six times a day. All right, let's close in prayer. No, that's not what He said. He said, "29...This is the work of God,..." And by the way, I want to emphasize this verse for those of you that have recognized in your life, that maybe you have that gravitational pull toward performance Christianity. In other words, doing things so God is going to bless you, or love you, or accept you. Here's what He wants you to do. He says that you would believe in him whom he has sent. And there it is. That's the work that He wants you to do. Which is no work at all because it has to do with faith, which is not a work. He wants you to believe in the One whom God has sent. Now, He's not saying that your obedience isn't important, it is. He is saying, however, as the other New Testament authors say, your obedience won't save you. Your obedience can't save you. What saves you is your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So He's telling them this, right? And this is a pretty big thing to swallow. Hey, believe in Me, yeah, that's the work of God. You want them to know the work of God, believe in Me, all right? Fine. Verse 30. So they said to him, great, all right, we hear what You're saying. Now, what miracle can You do to prove that everything You're saying is true? And that is really the response they're giving. They're saying what sign do You do that we may see and believe? What? What work are You going to perform so that we're going to believe what You say? Now remember, this group of people is largely made up of the same group that just ate miraculous food less than 24 hours ago. They were involved in a pretty spectacular miracle. And yet here they are, once again saying all right, that's an interesting thing to say. Well, what are you going to do to back it up? We want to see a miracle. And they even go on to give Him a suggestion. Can you relate to that? We do that in our prayer sometimes. We say, Lord, I need to pray about this. And then we proceed to tell Him what we think He ought to do to answer our prayer. ---

So they go on verse 31, "31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" And they're quoting Nehemiah to Jesus, right? (Nehemiah 9:15) "32 Jesus then said to them, (answered them) "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. (That's not the real bread.) ...my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is, I want you to notice this next word in your Bible. It is the personal masculine pronoun "he." For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Boy, you'd think that would be pretty clear. Jesus is saying, listen, the bread of heaven is not a thing, it's a person. It's He who comes down from heaven. They didn't get it. Verse 34. "34 Then they said to Him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'" Doesn't this sound a lot like the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well that we did in John chapter 4? Remember the situation there wasn't bread, it was water. And she comes to the well to get water, and He starts talking to her about living water. And He starts trying to get her eyes off the material water, and onto the spiritual thirst that we all have. And she listens to Him talk. And then she says, sir, give me this water that I will never have to come back here again. (John 4:15) It's very similar to what these people are saying, Lord, give us this bread, always. Well, so Jesus now has to speak a little more clearly about what He's talking about. And He's going to do that here in verse 35. But I want to just prepare you for what's coming. Because in the next several verses here, verse 35 and following, Jesus is going to say some things that we need to pay attention to. Because He's going to say a lot about who He is, and He's going to also say a lot about what He came to do. And those are important things for us to really latch onto. So here comes the clarity now in verse 35. He's already told them the bread of heaven, or the bread of life, is He. And they're like yeah, so give us this bread. We're hungry. Verse 35.

And those are some pretty bold statements for somebody to make. "I am the bread of life." I am. But He comes right out of the shoot and tells them. So what we're going to do is, we're going to look at this statement and we're going to ask the question, what is Jesus doing by making this statement? What is He saying? What does He mean? Well, He's obviously addressing, like He

--- did with the woman at the Samaritan well, He's addressing the issue of their immediate need. She came for water, let Me give you living water. They came for bread, let Me give you the bread of life. But by referring to Himself as the bread of life, Jesus is using a word picture here that was very important and would've been clearly understood by the people of the day. I don't know how well it translates today. I mean, we still eat bread and all that, but it's probably not as big of a staple in our diet, as it was, you know, back in those days. People kind of talk about bread a little bit disparagingly today. Oh, those are carbs, I don't do carbs. I do carbs. If I turn to the side, you can tell. But you know for people in Jesus' Day, this was absolutely huge. Because bread was one of the essential foods of the culture. Certainly it was a staple in the diet of the Jewish people. And that's why Jesus is using this picture to speak of what He offers spiritually. Because, because of the fact that bread was essential to their diet, He is making the point that the bread of life, Me, I am essential to your spiritual existence. That's the point. There is no eternal life apart from Me. Just as there is no continuation of life without the staple of bread and so forth. And He gives them these wonderful promises in verse 35, that are equally clear. And He says, that if they will partake of the bread of life the promise is, they will no longer hunger, and if they believe they will no longer thirst. But what are those promises predicated upon? Because they are conditional promises. Well, He says it right here, "whoever comes to me..." whoever comes to me and "whoever believes in me..." Do you know that? That's it. Boy, that's just, that's the essence of the gospel. You know, we have taken the last 2000 years to muck up the whole idea of what it means to be a Christian. And if you want the simple definition of what it means to be a Christian, it's the person who comes to Jesus and the person who believes in Him. That's it. And we get all these things that you got to do, and if you go to church, and you're doing, and a lot of these other things are good in and of themselves. Read your Bible, go to church, worship with other believers, you know, pray. Those are all wonderful things, but they don't necessarily make you a Christian. You have to come to Him and believe. And that's why Jesus says whoever comes to Me will no longer hunger, whoever believes in Me will no longer thirst. That's what it takes. Let's not confuse it. It's really quite simple. Being a Christian is really pretty simple, okay? ---

And I like when Jesus gets simple. He goes on to say in verse 36: "

" So the people that were there listening to Jesus they still didn't believe in His words. They still didn't believe in what He was saying. They weren't there yet. So He says in verse 37: "

" There's two statements here that we need to see. First of all, Jesus says all who the Father gives will come. And then secondly, He says, and when they come I'll never turn them away, nor will I ever cast them out. So you come to Jesus, you know that, you know that, you know He's going to accept you, if you come to Him. And then in the following verses, we have this beautiful expression of the gospel. Verse 38. "

" Jesus is going to talk a lot here about God's will. So we need to pay attention. He says that it is God's will that He came to lay down His life for sinful mankind. Verse 39. He says, "

" (Now pay attention to verse 40. This is important) "

" So several times here Jesus speaks of the will of the Father. And by the way, it's always good news. We take it for granted that the will of the Father is good news. But this is definitely good news. But did you notice in verse 40, He said, "everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, (and then check this out, He says,) ...I will raise him up on the last day." So let me ask you a question based on verse 40. Who's going to raise up your physical body on the last day? Jesus. Didn't He say that? He said that's the will of the Father and I will raise him up, those who believe in Me have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day, right? So Jesus is the One who's going to raise you up on the last day. By the way, whenever the Bible talks about resurrection, it's always talking about your body, okay? It's not talking about the essence of who you are. That will be merged with your body. But listen, when you die, if the Lord tarries and you end up expiring first, you will go immediately into the presence of the Lord. Your body will be raised. You, the essence of you doesn't get raised. You go to be with the Lord. But your body, you're going to be given a new body someday.

So understand that, please. Resurrection always refers to the body, not the spirit and the soul. Those things immediately go into the presence of the Lord. So who's going to raise up your physical body? Jesus. Now that's kind of interesting in light of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, let me show you on the screen. Chapter 1, 2 Corinthians 1:9 (ESV) Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. "Indeed Paul writes, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But (he says), all that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on, (oh look at here), God who raises the dead." So according to Paul, who raises the dead? God. But according to John 6:40, who's going to raise you up? Jesus. How is that possible? Because Jesus is God. You can't come up with any other conclusion, otherwise you got problems with your Bible. Jesus is God and He is going to raise you up. He is going to raise the dead. So Jesus shares the good news as He does the will of the Father. But you know there's always people who just can't accept things and they have to grumble and complain. And that's what happens here. Verse 31. "31 So the Jews grumbled about him..." And they said, He's saying, I'm the bread that came down. Hey, how can He say I'm the bread. It came down from heaven. How can He say that? And they even go on to say, isn't this Jesus? Didn't we watched Him grow up? We watched Him from the little tyke grow up right here. And we know His father and His mother so how can He say things like, I have come down from heaven? And "43 Jesus answered them, (in verse 43,) 'Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.'" There it is again about raising up, and who's going to do it. But we're reminded in this passage, something very important about our salvation, and that is that it begins with God. Notice what Jesus said, nobody can come to me unless the Father draws him. So where does your salvation begin? Sometimes I think we Christians, we give ourselves the credit. We think that we thought of it all ourselves. You know what I think, I need to get saved. I'm just getting more and more convinced that I'm a sinner. And you know what, I think Jesus is the savior. So here's what I'm going to do. And we think we got that all figured out and we did it all on our own. Fact of the matter is, nobody can come to Jesus unless he's been drawn. There is a drawing work that goes through the work of the Holy Spirit. But here's the question, who is drawn? Who is drawn? I have to tell you, because I've been a believer now for a while, I think that we waste a lot of time asking questions, frankly, like this. I really do. In fact, I think people waste a lot of their time talking about situations or debating things that they just can't truly know. And I get notes from people from time to time that will say, you know pastor Paul, I believe in Jesus and I, I know that He died for the sins of the world, and I've accepted that. But how do I know that for sure that I am the one who was drawn? And how do I know that I've been chosen? And I'm kinda like, as if they're going to get, you know, to the gate of heaven one day and God is going to be checking off the list and come to them and go, oh, sorry you weren't chosen. Sorry! You know. And then hit the button, you know that (down sound), as if, I mean, it's ridiculous. It really is, it's ridiculous. So who is drawn? Well, I can tell you this for sure. If you recognize today your sin, and you can very easily and openly say I am a sinner. And if you likewise, recognize the fact that Jesus is the Savior, and He's yours, I can tell you with absolute confidence you have been drawn. You've been drawn. So is Jesus saying here that some people will never be drawn? Is that what He's saying in this particular verse? I got to tell you, I personally struggle with that conclusion. And I struggle with it not just because I don't like it, but because it flies in the face of other scripture. And you know when we're interpreting the Bible, you know the best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible, right? Smartest best way is, let the Bible interpret itself. And there's a passage that Peter wrote in his 2nd letter. I want to show you on the screen, and it goes like this,

"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, and I highlighted this next phrase, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." So what does this passage tell you? It tells you "it is the will of God, that none should perish, but that all, (and those are conclusive words) would come to repentance. Any and all, right?

Now that's really all you need to know. That's it right...there. We can really stop the debate and we can just say, well, you know there's one thing I know for sure, God wants everyone to be saved. Does that mean everybody's going to be saved? No, sadly it does not. But God's will, He is not willing that any should perish. He's not willing. It's not His will. He wants people to come to repentance and to a saving knowledge of what Jesus Christ did on the cross when He died for your sins. He wants that. And frankly I think that we can rest in that, and we can leave the rest of the debate in God's hands, right? But it all comes down to faith. It all comes down to faith. I run into a lot of people that don't have peace with God on the score of salvation. When it comes to talking about their salvation, they're just not sure. They're just not sure. And the reason they're not sure is, because they just can't figure things out. And they keep asking questions. And they want...question, after question, after question, trying to get the right answer that's going to give them peace. And I try to explain to people that you don't get peace from getting right answers. You get peace by believing in God's love more than you believe in your ability to figure it out. That's where peace comes from. That is where rest comes from. If you're one of those people who struggles in the area of peace and rest as it relates to your salvation, stop trying to create an intellectual reason to rest or to have peace in God. And trust by faith that God has you and He's not letting go. That's what's going to bring you peace. That's what's going to bring you rest. It is not an intellectual pursuit. It is the pursuit of faith, you know. There's so many things that just kind of bogle our mind. But at the end of the day, I have to trust in God's love above and beyond all those things that bogle my mind. And just say, you know what, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds and I'm just going to trust in You. All right, last three verses that we're covering this morning. Verse 45: "45 It is written in the Prophets, (Jesus is speaking here) 'And they will all be taught by God.'" He's quoting Isaiah 54. (Isaiah 54:13) He says,

And He's saying something pretty important there. He's saying only I have seen the Father. "47 Truly, truly, (here it is, here's the gospel) I say to you, whoever believes (that's putting your faith in Jesus and His finished work) has eternal life." These are such important just last few verses, but I want to end with this statement and just talk about this for just a moment.

This statement in verse 45, where Jesus says, "everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." Oh, but pastor Paul, how do I know if I've heard and learned? And this is something again, I hear, I...it says here that, everyone who has heard and learned... But I don't know for sure if I've really heard and if I've learned." And so I just ask them a few, couple quick questions. Do you know that you're a sinner? Yeah. Okay. Do you know that Jesus is the Savior? Yes. Then you heard and learned. That's what He wants you to know. I mean, we strive for a lot of other sort of information, but He wants you to just get the basics down. You're a sinner, He's the Savior. Boom! And if you got that you've heard and you've learned. And not that there aren't other things to hear and learn. Because we grow up in our salvation, and we grow in the grace and knowledge. And we move on from infancy into adulthood in our spiritual lives. But where you begin to hear and learn is the simple reality, I am a sinner, He's the Savior, I accept Him. I accept what He did on the cross, and I know, that I know, that I know that I'm saved. Not because I'm a good person, it's because He's good. He's a good God. Amen. Let's stand together. We're going to have some folks down front here to pray with you if you need prayer this morning for whatever reason. Heavenly Father, I want to just pray this morning here as we close, if there's anybody in this room or who's been, who's watching online, who just hasn't said the words out loud, Jesus, I receive what You did for me on the cross. Then I pray, Lord God, they would do that right now. Even if it's in the quiet of their heart. Lord, I just I receive what You did for me on the cross. I believe. And I believe that salvation is not based on me being a good person, or getting it right, or figuring out every nuance of all of the debates that are going on. But I believe that salvation is based on faith alone through the grace of God, and I accept it today. And I ask You, my Father God, to give Your children rest and peace from the knowledge that they are in Christ today. That they have heard and they have learned and they can now go forth and grow in that knowledge and mature in their faith to trust in the Lord with all of their hearts leaning not on their own understanding but acknowledging You in every circumstance of life. I thank You and praise You Lord for Your powerful redeeming word. And we commit our hearts to You and our lives to You in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your Sunday.