John 7:1-24 "The Turning Point"

If we were to make a movie of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, this very well might be the low point in the movie. You know that point when things start to seem so bleak for our hero that we begin to wonder “ok, when are things going to turn around?” well, this is it. Yes, I’m well aware that there are already several films that have been made about our Savior, but if we were to use only John’s gospel as our source of information, this would be that low point. Why do I say that? Well, let’s look at it why don’t we. Our text begins with Jesus walking about in Galilee. We’re told that he is walking around Galilee because Judea isn’t an option. It isn’t an option because the Jews that are in Judea want to kill him. Their solution to this whole “Jesus problem” is to do away with the person of Jesus entirely. They don’t want to put him in prison for a long time or evict him from their country; they want to kill him. It’s no wonder Jesus doesn’t want to go to Judea. However, it is currently the Feast of Booths, or as some call it, the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast or festival was a seven-day celebration of God’s provision for His people during their time in the wilderness. It also was a chance to commemorate the completion of the harvest. All Jews from all parts of the nation were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate. With this being the case, it is Jesus’ duty, under the law, to go to Judea for the feast.

Jesus’ brothers (Yes, Jesus does have brothers, but we aren’t going to get into that discussion today) advise him saying, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” Jesus’ brothers seem here to be working more as campaign managers than disciples. They seem to be saying “Hey, you’re never going to gain any fame or notoriety if you keep performing your signs and miracles in front of nobodies or in secret. Even when you do work in front of large crowds, you seem to run off before people have a chance to know that it was you or ask you anything. If you really want to get this thing some publicity, you ought to go down to Judea because everyone is going to be there. You aren’t going to get noticed up here in Galilee, you need to go where the people are.” You see, it isn’t as if his brothers are entirely wrong here. Jesus did in fact perform most of his miracles to this point in secrecy somewhat. What they didn’t understand, however, was that the signs and miracles done to this point were not performed by Christ with the intention of gaining fame.

I want you to look at Jesus’ words to his brothers at this point and tell me if they sound familiar. Verses 6-8 say, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” Sound familiar? Remember back to Jesus’ first miracle in chapter 2 of this gospel. What was Jesus’ response to his own mother when she told him that he had to save the wedding feast and fix the problem of no more wine? “My time has not yet come.” And, just like the wedding festival, after Jesus told those closest to him that his time had not yet come, he eventually does the very thing that they were asking him to do. Verse 10, “But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.” He went in secret because of the threat that awaited him in Judea; the threat that we talked about at the beginning of this sermon. The Jews knew very well that Jesus was required to be at this feast and they were looking for him. They had people who were given the sole task of finding and capturing Jesus so that he could be put to death. The problem for them was they were expecting him to stand out and for it to be obvious where he was. One of the things that happened as a result of him going secretly was that it gave him and his disciples a chance to hear what was being said about him. There were mixed opinions about him ranging from him being exactly who he claimed to be to him being a complete and total fraud. However, most of this talk was done quietly since the people were afraid to speak openly about him out of fear of the Jews.

This is why we say that this is possibly the low point in Jesus’ ministry. Let’s just recap the first part of this text today and the amount of unbelief that we see; mind you that Jesus has been at his earthly ministry for possibly a year now at this point. We have seen that the opinions about him amongst the crowd in Judea are mixed, but that isn’t the worst of it. The problem isn’t that some people do not believe, but that even those who believe won’t openly say it because they are afraid. They think that the penalty that the Jews can place on them is greater than the joy and hope found in bolding proclaiming Christ to be the promised Messiah. However, this mixed group in Judea doesn’t compare to the disbelief that Jesus finds in his own family. Remember back when we were talking about Jesus’ brothers there was the statement, “for even His brothers did not believe in Him.” Now, I don’t have any siblings, but I do understand the hesitance that they might have in saying that their sibling is God himself. But we have already seen that Mary knows Jesus to be who he claims to be, how could his brothers not share her sentiments?

As if having everyone, even his own family, doubting his being who he claimed to be, there is still a little bit farther that we have to go. Jesus decided, after getting to Judea, that he would not be silent anymore, but would begin to teach right in the middle of the feast. We are told that as he taught “the Jews therefore marveled, saying, ‘How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?’” Now the wording that is used here tells us that there was a sense of doubt about the Jews. They thought that since Jesus had no formal education, that there was no way that he could know anything about the matters of God. The Pharisees, scribes, and doctors of the law who had studied under Gamaliel, Hillel, or one of the other rabbinic traditions thought Jesus to be someone who simply wanted to corrupt the Christian faith. They wanted to know who he studied under. They wanted to know how he came to possess such knowledge. In other words, because of his lack of education, they doubted that Jesus even had any clue what he was talking about.

It is at this point where we see things start to turn and take a much more positive direction for Jesus and his earthly ministry. Jesus answers the Jews by saying, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.” You see, Jesus said that his doctrine, what he was teaching, wasn’t his invention at all. It came from the source. It came from God. It isn’t as if Jesus knew everything from the time of his birth. He had learned all that he was teaching, but instead of learning it from different traditions, books, and teachers, he learned all that he knew from the Father. We say all the time that theology, the study of the things of God, is simply man’s interpretation of God’s Word, and that is a perfectly acceptable definition. However, this isn’t the same thing that we are getting from Jesus here. Here, we are talking about direct knowledge given to the Son from the Father. Yes, Jesus grew and studied Scripture just like any other man, but he happens to be the Son of God. In his study of God’s Word, he came to see and understand that the gospel is not about man, but it is about God.

Then, we have the heated exchange between Jesus and these Jews. Jesus said, “’Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?’ The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?’” They think he is a mad man. They think that he is crazy for thinking that someone is trying to do him harm. I think it’s great how Jesus turns things back around on them. “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” Remember back when Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath how those in power condemned him for what he had done? Do you remember how Jesus had to teach them and let them know that it was not against the law for them to do good works on the Sabbath? Just as he is doing here, Jesus is having to correct all of the “experts” misguided notions about the law. He is in essence saying to them, “how can you question my teachings and my credentials, when you yourself simply hide behind a law that you do not fully understand?”

Friends, we could spend hours discussing any one of these statements made by Jesus Christ here today. We could dissect them from a theological perspective, an authority perspective, or some other angle, but what matters is this: Jesus Christ is beginning his public proclamation of his identity. Don’t misunderstand me, it isn’t as if he has hidden from people up to this point. However, he now is going on the offensive instead of the defensive. He is proclaiming his claims instead of defending them. The question that we have today when we come to this text is what this means for us. Well, ultimately, this is more evidence and proof that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, our Redeemer. However, there are some other things that can be taken from this passage as well. One is that no matter how bleak, no matter how hard or difficult things may seem for Christians today, we need to follow the example of Christ. Christ is in the midst of a period of doubt by many of those who claimed him to be Lord. He is facing a threat against his life, yet he remains unchanged in his ministry. He doesn’t let the circumstances around him deter him from what he knows that he must do. Secondly, we see how his disciples and even his brothers don’t believe him. They doubt him because of they have not understood everything up to this point. There are Christians today who say that God is in control, but they try and take matters into their own hands. They act as if God’s doesn’t have the power to deliver them from their troubles. I can tell you today, that God is real, He is ever-present, He has saved us, He has redeemed us, and He will deliver us from all evil and temptation until such time as we are called home. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John 6:60-71 "Take No Offense"

If you will recall, last Sunday we concluded a multiple week look at Jesus’ discourse about him being the bread of life come down from heaven. If we were going to sum up our last two Sunday’s into one concise statement, it would be something to the effect of, “The only thing that allows us to enter into the kingdom of God is our union with Jesus Christ. Our religion, our church attendance, not even our good works will in-and-of themselves allow us to enter into heaven.” The truth of the matter is that it is far better for us that this is the way that things are. The less we have to do with our salvation means that more (in fact all) is done by God. I’m thankful for the fact that my salvation doesn’t depend on anything that I do or don’t do. However, this doesn’t really make it any easier for us to understand and grasp fully. After all, our natural inclination is to think that if it is something that pertains to us, that our actions ought to be what determines the outcome. We think that we ought to at least have a say-so in the matter at hand, but as we said last time, it is all about Jesus and what Christ has done on our behalf. And if you will recall, Jesus didn’t sugarcoat it. He simply said that he is the only way to the Father, the only way to heaven.

His disciples heard what he said and quite honestly many of them didn’t really like what he had to say and thought that it was too harsh. I think that we can identify with their sentiments, because as I mentioned earlier, it isn’t exactly what we think we would hear. Look at Jesus’ words in the second half of verse 61, “Do you take offense to this?” To fully understand what Christ is asking the disciples here we must differentiate between two similar, yet very different, principles. We have to distinguish between taking offense to something and giving or committing an offense. My sweet wife tells me from time-to-time that I have no filter. By this, she means that I say things that come to mind without any regard for how they will be received. I don’t mean anything by saying what is on my mind and I’m not trying to be hurtful; it just happens. I don’t understand why someone would ask for my opinion and not want my complete honest opinion. It doesn’t make sense to me. However, that does not mean that people have not taken offense to things that I have said. Why, there are people who have taken offense to things that I have said from the pulpit as I have tried to expound upon God’s word. We really cannot control whether or not someone takes offense to what we say, but as Christians, we are commanded not to give offense, not to violate people or do them harm. We can say or do the exact right thing sometimes and yet people will take offense anyway. When we call a sin a sin, there is a good chance that we are going to offend the guilty party in the process, but that doesn’t mean we are wrong. There has never been anyone more honest and forthcoming than our Lord and Savior. Nothing that he said was ever with the intention of causing someone to be hurt or offended, but that didn’t stop it from happening. I shudder to even guess at the number of people who took offense to Christ’s message during his earthly ministry, but that didn’t make what he was preaching any less truthful.

As our text continues on we see Christ ask, “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Christ is asking his disciples if they would be any less offended by his words if they were to see the true glory of the Son. Sure, they may be offended and have some sense of doubt while he is a man living on this earth, but if his ascension were to take place at that very moment; wouldn’t all the doubt be washed away? Of course it would, and there would be no questions left about whether or not what he was speaking is the truth. Now, we know that his ascension does occur, just not right now. Jesus goes on to tell these people why they are having such doubts and it is because of their perspective. They are corrupted by the flesh. When he says that the flesh is no help, he is really saying that the flesh is a hindrance. He is saying that it is only by the power of God that we can come to see the true meaning and true understanding of what he is trying to tell us. We saw this very same conversation back several months ago when Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in chapter 3 of this gospel, when Jesus told Nicodemus that the flesh cannot produce spiritual fruit. If we think that we can understand the things of God without the help of God then we are mistaken. For these disciples this day, they must rely upon Christ to give them the truth. For us today, we must rely upon the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and minds and reveal the truth to us. That’s why before our reading of God’s Word each Sunday, we pray that the Holy Spirit will illumine our minds, open our eyes, and allow us to see the fullness of the glory of God held within Scripture.

Jesus then goes on to speak about the truth that is found within the words that he is speaking and that the Spirit makes real for us this day, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” You see, for us to fully understand and know God, and I’m not talking about knowing all there is to know about God, it takes God himself. I’m talking here about knowing without a doubt that He is real and that He is ever-present in our world. I’m not saying that when we are Christians that we understand all of what Scripture says with 100% clarity. If that were the case, then we wouldn’t really need folks like me would we? If we understood all of Scripture just by becoming a Christian, then there would be no need for preachers and teachers of the Word. The word would be fully understood once someone became a Christian. However, the truth of the matter is that the Christian life is a process. It is a process that is not completed until that time that our Father calls us home. I don’t care how long you are a Christian, how much you study, or how much you try to do the “Christian thing”, it is an ongoing process. Not only is it an ongoing process, but it is a difficult and painful one at that. That’s why it is such a great thing that a) it isn’t about what we do, and b) it wasn’t up to us in the first place. Remember, it is God who has called all of His children to Him and it is God who will see them through their time on this earth until they enter into His presence.

Jesus watched as many false disciples left at the hearing of these words. It reminds us of how many times there are those in this life who claim that they want to know Christ and say that they long for him, but when things become difficult or their faith requires a difficult choice, they turn and walk away. Well, Jesus puts that to the disciples that still remain, “Do you want to go away as well?” Then, Peter answers with one of the greatest confession of the Christian faith that we find in Scripture. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter doesn’t deny that Jesus’ sayings were hard, but he also acknowledges that Jesus’ words were words of life. The Twelve have no other place to look for life other than in Jesus Christ, and neither do we.

Are you ever tempted to leave? When the Christian walk becomes difficult and seemingly too much to overcome what goes through you head? As much as I hate to admit it, I have been at this point many times in my life. No, I have never quit on the Christian faith, but I have been at the point where I wanted to. As much as I hate to admit it, I was already in ministry when the weight of a million different things fell upon my shoulders and trying to live as a Christian during the midst of such a storm nearly broke me. It wreaked havoc on my health, my lifestyle, and my family. However, where would I go if I left? After all, it isn’t as if Christianity is just one of many acceptable and viable options when it comes to faith. Christ is the only option, the only way to the Father, the only way to heaven. I’m not going to find words of eternal life in any other religion or tradition. I’m not finding the words of eternal life anywhere other than in the One who gave His life that we might live. No matter how hard the Christian life may be, and make no mistake about it, it is hard; there is nowhere else that we can look outside of Jesus Christ. We will be beat up, knocked down, and seemingly crushed by the weight of the world around us, but we must keep our eyes fixed upon the cross; for it is our only chance of salvation. Because of the sacrifice made by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ upon the cross, we have an everlasting hope that conquers all. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John 6:35-59 "The Bread of Heaven - Part 2"

I mentioned to you last Sunday that I love what I do. I also told you that there are times when my calling can be quite difficult, and this is one of those times. It isn’t that I don’t love and enjoy discussing God’s Word, but that I don’t like defending it to a lot of preconceived notions. You may be wondering what in the world I am talking about. You see, this text, Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life, is one of the traditional and classic texts used to support the Reformed biblical doctrines of predestination and election. Basically, these doctrines work together to simply say that God chooses for no particular reason those who will be saved and that this is worked out by a plan that God has had since before the creation of this world. What that plan looks like I have no clue, but I do believe that there is one and it has already been established. Now, I am well aware that as these words are coming out of my mouth, that red flags have shot up all over the place. I know that for many people, hopefully none in this room, that these words in-and-of-themselves are a stumbling block for many people accepting the Presbyterian view of Christianity and salvation. I remind you, also, that it isn’t as if you have to fully understand these doctrines to be a Christian and to be a part of Christ’s Church. To put it as one of the members of our men’s Bible study on Wednesday mornings put it, “this is just one of those ‘now I see through a glass darkly’ types of subjects.” In other words, this is just one of those things that many of us do not and will not ever truly and fully understand. As this same person said Wednesday, “It’s above our pay-grade.” I can recall some good friends of mine and Amy’s back in Mississippi who we tried for years to invite to church resisting at all costs, and both of them were raised in the church and had ministers as close family members. They knew us, they knew the preacher of our church, and they even knew some folks within the church, and they liked everyone out of that group. So, Amy asked them one time why they wouldn’t come to church with us. If they didn’t like our church then we would leave it alone, but they wouldn’t even really give it a chance. Their answer was, “Well, we don’t really believe in predestination and from what we understand that’s what Presbyterians primarily preach about isn’t it?” My response to that is, “only when we have to because of the text.”

For those of you who are sitting here today and you are still wondering what predestination and election even mean, well I’m going to try and give you as simple of an explanation as I can, but I am going to start with what it is not. Predestination, in the sense that we say it, is not a belief that everything that you or I am going to do is scripted by God from birth to death. Often times, that’s what people think it is, and this is evident from old sayings like, “If it’s meant to be, it will be.” Sure, I guess that’s right, but that has absolutely nothing to do with this doctrine of predestination. It isn’t as if God cares whether I have pizza or gumbo for lunch after I leave church today. The doctrines of predestination and election pertain to matters of salvation, not each and every move that we make. They are in essence more of an end-game concept instead of a play-by-play matter.
I want to pause for just a moment and look at the words of Jesus beginning in verse 35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” In other words, Jesus is all that we need to survive. The nourishment that we get from earthly bread and water is only temporary, but the nourishment given to us by Christ is eternal and everlasting. “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” Here Jesus is speaking to this group of people who have witnessed him do some amazing things, and yet they still doubt him, as we will see clearly in just a moment, to be the one who he claims to be. We too have been given more than enough “evidence” or reasons to believe in Christ; to believe in God. However, we don’t, at least not as a society as a whole. We only ask for more. As soon as our latest moment of clarity and closeness to God passes, we find ourselves doubting and wondering. As soon as the good times end and troubles begin, we don’t wonder how God will deliver us, but instead think that He has forsaken us. Friends, I can tell you without a doubt that God is real and is ever-present in our lives today.

Then, beginning in verse 37, Jesus begins some of the most debated statements in all of Scripture. He spends the next several verses talking about those that the Father has given him and those coming to him, and these two statements seem somewhat contradictory. Look at verse 39, “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.” When we think of predestination and election we struggle with them because they make us feel like everything is already decided and that there is no hope for those currently outside of the Church. We struggle because it makes it seem as if God did not intend to save everyone with Christ’s death. We struggle because they make our God seem so exclusive. If you were a doctor and you prescribed medicine for a patient, do you cross your fingers and hope that it will have some healing impact on the patient’s life, or do you have a reasonable degree of confidence that the medication you prescribed will actually effect what you intend it to effect. Well, it would be the latter. Now, even though a doctor is highly educated, they are still moral and finite. They don’t have omniscience. They don’t know for sure that the medication they prescribe will do what they want it to do. That particular patient may be in the small number of people who have a violent reaction to that medication, and they don’t know that in advance. Nevertheless, they prescribe the medication anyway.

Now, let’s think about God. Do you think that when God planned His way of salvation that He just threw some “medication” out there and hoped that some people would take advantage of it and be healed? Or did He know the effect that it was going to have, since He had sovereignly determined that there were people who were going to be healed by the medicine of His grace, to honor His Son? You see, an overwhelming majority of Christians today think in terms of we come, we decide. After we decide then the Father recognizes our decision and makes us gifts to His Son, but that’s not what Jesus taught. “The ones whom the Father has given to Me will come to Me, every one of them.” The Father has already given, and Christ is waiting to accept them into his arms.

Feeling very much dumbfounded, much like we are today, over the words of Jesus, this group of people, this group of Jews, responds. They say that Jesus can’t be from heaven, they know who his parents are. How can this guy say that he has come down from heaven when they know where he was born and where he grew up? Jesus goes on to assure them that he is from heaven and that he is from the Father. He is the only way to eternal life; he is the bread come down from heaven. He tells them once again of the manna eaten in the wilderness and reminds them all those who received temporary nourishment from it died. They were fed for a time, but they too perished. Jesus, the bread of heaven, is the food that will nourish us and give us life everlasting. No, we do not become immortal on this earth, but we live eternally in heaven with the Father. Jesus was telling them that the way in which we have this eternal life is because of the sacrifice that he is going to make on our behalf, his very own flesh and blood.

The people are confused. They don’t understand this language of Christ being the bread of heaven and life being found in the eating of his flesh. And this isn’t an irrational thought. In the early centuries of Christianity, Christians were looked at as cannibals by outside groups because the language of eating and drinking the body and blood of their Savior didn’t make sense to other groups. Why, there are those out there today who are not Christians who still do not understand what it is we are doing when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. There is even a popular view of communion that believes that the elements of the bread and the cup are transformed into the actual flesh and blood of Christ upon partaking of them. Our view, however, in the Reformed tradition, is that the elements are merely symbols and represent the sacrifice of Christ. In our view, this sacrament commemorates Christ’s offering up of himself for our sins and it spiritually offers up to God every possible praise for that sacrifice.

As we prepare ourselves to receive these elements on this table before us, the bread and the cup, let us remember what they represent. The bread represents the body of Christ, the true food. The cup, representing the blood of Christ, is our true drink. Christ tells us that whoever partakes of these elements abides in Christ and Christ in them. Since the Father has sent him into the world and Christ lives because of the Father, those who feed upon him will live because of the Father as well. The bread that came down from heaven, Jesus Christ, is the one true nourishment that is found in this world, and I’m not talking about the elements but what they represent. When Jesus Christ is our goal, when we stop striving for the things of this world, then we are fully nourished and whole. Once God has called us to be His own and we have experienced the fullness of His glory and the richness of His love, then we will hunger and thirst no more. As Christ says of himself at the end of our text, “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John 6:22-34 "The Bread of Heaven - Part 1"

Alright, let me set the stage for you just a little bit before we get started. If you will recall, prior to our text from last Sunday, Jesus had just fed the masses, retreated with his disciples, and gone into a time of solitude. Then, last Sunday, we saw that Jesus’ disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee in order to go to Capernaum. Jesus had stayed behind, but went to them later on walking on the water. Do you remember what I’m talking about? When our text from last Sunday ended, Jesus had brought himself and the disciples safely to dry land after they brought him onto the boat during a violent storm. Well, after all of this has occurred, the people who had just witnessed Jesus’ feeding of the multitude were looking for him at the spot where this event had taken place. In fact, more people, having heard what happened there, had come to try and find Jesus. Remember, there were those who wanted to make him a king, and even more who just wanted something else from him. The problem for them is that he is nowhere to be found. Some of the people in the area had seen the disciples get into the boat, but they didn’t see Jesus get in with them. In fact, they even saw him retreat for a moment alone and they know they didn’t see him go out onto the sea by himself. They don’t really know where he is, but they know he isn’t around there, so they go to Capernaum in search of him.

This group of people makes their way to Capernaum in search of Jesus, and they find him. After finding him they ask him when he got there, but what they are really wanting to know is not only when, but how he got there. Over this past week, as I read and reread this text, I found myself thinking how great it would have been if Jesus just looked at them and said, “I walked.” However, he doesn’t; he gives them these words instead, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Here Jesus is referring back to the aforementioned feeding of the 5,000. He’s saying to these people that the only reason why you are after me is because of what you got from me. The whole reason you wanted to make me a king in the first place was because you gained from the works that I have done. You care nothing for the thing that these signs are pointing to, but only what you get out of them. They don’t really care what the purpose is; they just care about what they receive. Does any of that sound somewhat familiar to you? It’s like the person who gets up and goes to church each and every week not to give thanks to God, but because they make some great connections at church or because it gives them something to do. They go more out of obligation than they do out of love for God. It’s like the person who becomes a Christian and really wants to live a Christian life, but won’t make the sacrifices and choices that are required. It’s like the person who wants God to only be part of their life instead of committing their life to God. These people here, and many people today, simply want all the good and none of the “bad” or difficult, but it doesn’t work that way. They want all of the reward, with none of the “risk” for lack of a better term. It isn’t about us and our getting what we want and need. It is about God, and don’t forget that God has promised to provide for all that we truly need in this world.

However, Jesus’ words to these people are not entirely condemning. He does give them some much needed advice for how they should proceed. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, 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.” I’m one of the most lucky and fortunate people in the world. Now there are a lot of reasons why this statement is true, but what I am specifically referring to here is the fact that I love what I do. I absolutely love my calling, my vocation. Sure, there are some days when it isn’t very fun. There are those times when I have to do something that I would rather not do, but for the most part I love what I do. Maybe you are lucky like I am and you either love what you do or you did love it back when you were working. Unfortunately, not everyone has this good fortune. There are many people who wake up and go to work dreading what they are about to endure. You can ask someone who is in this type of situation why they do it. The entire reason why they do it is so that they can put food on the table and that’s it. There is no sense of calling or joy to what they are doing with their lives. Now, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing entirely. I have myself worked jobs just to make ends meet, but there was no joy there. I’m well aware of the fact that some people, most in fact, have to work in something that they don’t exactly enjoy. But ones occupation isn’t what Jesus is talking about here. He is quite simply giving us this one truth: don’t spend your life pursuing that which has no ultimate significance. For those who work and work just for stuff and possessions, it truly is a sad thing. Think about the non-Christian who does all of this and one day wakes up and realizes that they have done this for 30, 40, or 50 years and there is, at least in their minds, nothing else. However, as Christians, we know that there is something else. We know that that something else is much greater than this world. Our eyes are not fixed upon the things of this world, or at least they shouldn’t be. No amount of joy or happiness is what our goal should be. Our goal should be Christ. Our goal should be the proclamation of the Word. Our goal should be the growth of the kingdom. We should not labor for the things of this world, the things that perish. Instead we should labor for the Kingdom of Heaven, the things that endure to eternal life.

Our question at this moment is probably very similar to that of the people gathered around Christ, “what should we do?” Or in other words, if we are to work with Christ as our goal, then what should we be doing? Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” We are to believe in God and have faith that we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ. However, we want something more tangible than faith. We are as foolish as these people when they ask, “then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” This reference, of course, is of the events of Exodus 16 where God gave Israel bread from heaven to provide for them and to show them that He would indeed deliver them safely to the Promised Land. They want to know what sign they have from God this time that tells them that they should have faith and work only towards the goals of heaven and not the goals of man. Jesus tells them that they need not focus upon the sign, but the one who gives the sign. “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Israel’s receiving of the bread was not the important matter, but that God would provide for the needs of His people.

Look at it like this; think about it in terms of a baptism. The act of baptizing someone isn’t magical or a work of conversion in-and-of itself. Baptism is a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace; a sign and seal of God’s promise of redemption for all who believe in Him. The water used during the baptism of a person doesn’t literally wash away the sins of that person. The water itself has no salvific power; it is the sign. What the water represents, our engrafting into Christ, our rebirth, the remission of our sins, and our yielding to God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life, is what matters. Jesus, here is saying that these people shouldn’t worry about the bread; not the bread given to Israel and not even the bread given by him the previous day. What they should concern themselves with is the bread of God which is Jesus Christ himself, the one sent from the Father. Jesus Christ himself is the one who has the power to satisfy and give life everlasting. Now, we will take a little closer look at Jesus as this bread of life next Sunday, but let’s leave this day singing the words of those listening to Jesus. “Sir, give us this bread always.” In other words, “Jesus, we want you. We want all of you. Lord, do not let our focus be upon the things of this earth. Do not let us worry about our earthly desires and the things of this world that are sure to perish, but let us focus upon you. Let us focus upon your kingdom. Let us focus upon the one who created us, redeemed us, and sustains us.” Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.