FBCWest 569 | Eternal Food
Recorded On: 08/27/2023
Bulletin
Hymn #177 “I Am Resolved”
SCRIPTURE READING – Galatians 5:1
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Holy Forever”
“Home Coming”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Eternal Food”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Living Hope”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 6:26 Jesus tells the crowd why they really are seeking Him
John 6:27 Jesus tells them not to work for food that perishes, but for eternal food
John 6:28 They ask how to work the works of God
John 6:29 Jesus tells them the work of God is to believe in Him who was sent by God
John 6:30 & 31 They want a sign in order to believe like manna from heaven
John 6:32 – 33 Jesus tells them it was not Moses who gave manna, but God
John 6:34 Like the woman at the well, they want this bread out of heaven
John 6:35 & 36 Jesus tells them He is the Bread of Life, and they have seen Him, but do not believe
John 6:37 – 40 Jesus is doing the will of the Father and the Father’s will is that whoever He gives to Jesus, Jesus will not loose any of them and will raise them up on the last day
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
After feeding a large crowd, the crowd goes looking for Jesus because they had been fed by him. After finding Jesus, Jesus states to them that you're seeking him because they ate the loaves and the fish.
They were seeking Jesus because of temporary things. Jesus tells them instead of looking for temporary things that don't last, that they should do that which is eternal food, which is doing the work of the Father. They ask the question of Jesus, what is the work of the Father? Come listen to what Jesus has to say in that one.
And then Jesus at this point, we continue the story and it says, "Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you seeked our signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."
You see the crowd does much of what we do.
All too often we seek Jesus for the temporary.
We seek Jesus, get us out of the mistakes that we've made, or we seek Jesus to perform some miracle in our lives, or we seek him for the here and now.
And that's what the crowd does. And so it's easy to get on them, but oftentimes we do the same thing. And Jesus acknowledges that they're not seeking him for spiritual matters, they're seeking him for temporary matters. And the problem with temporal situation is that the temporary never lasts because it's temporary.
For instance, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to internal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father God has set his seal." And so Jesus is taking the opportunity of having shown them a sign of his multiplying the bread and saying, "Don't seek the temporary, don't seek the food that's here on earth."
And that's something that, again, we can understand because, let's face it, if you sat down at your favorite meal, whatever that may be, you pick your favorite meal and it's seasoned the way you like, and it's got all the side dishes that you like, and the dessert, and you eat, and you eat, and you eat. And not only are you satisfied, not only are you satiated, you've enjoyed the meal so much, you're stuffed, you're overly filled, you don't feel good because you have so much food in your stomach.
Now if it wasn't temporary, that full filling would last you a very, very, very long time.
But I can almost guarantee you within a few hours, you'll open up the refrigerator and see what's inside because appetites are never satisfied.
We think, "Well, if I just get this house, all my desires will be fulfilled, then we'll want that particular car, or we want a different house, or we want this, or we want that." Our appetites are never satisfied. And Jesus is saying, "Don't work for those temporary things. Instead, work for the food which endures to eternal life. Take a look at not the temporary, but the eternal." He says, "And that eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you, because the Father of God has said He sealed His approval, His guarantee, His proof of the Son."
Now this is where they correct me. "Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do so that we may work the works of God?" So they ask the right question.
They say, "Okay, we see what you're saying. We shouldn't work for temporary food. Let's work for eternal food. So what is the works of God that we might do that?"
Now because they were Jews, they probably were expecting, "Well, if you follow the Torah, you know, love the Lord your God with all heart, all your mind, and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself, and all the various 630 plus commandments, that it said, okay, that's what we're to do, the work of God. But that's not what Jesus says.
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God."
He's addressing their specific question.
He's not saying it with a parable. He's not saying it with theology. He's saying it plainly and directly.
This is the work of God that you believe in Him who He has sent.
It's not following the law. It's not doing certain things. It's not accomplishing great things. It's believing in Jesus.
Because Jesus hasn't changed His theology one bit. He says, "I came that you might believe and have eternal life." He keeps reiterating over and over and over that the work of God is to believe in Jesus.
And it is amazing.
This simple statement, no one can understand.
Because you'll read books on theology, and they'll talk about, well, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, you've got to be baptized, you've got to take communion, you've got to live a good life. They're doing all these things that they add to it. You've got to join the right church. And Jesus says, "The work of God is to believe me."
That's it.
It's not me plus something. It's believe that the Father sent me.
"So they said to Him, "What then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?"
Hey, guys, you just followed Him from one side of the lake, the Sea of Galilee, to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, because He was feeding you bread.
That's a pretty good sign.
They were, after having received that bread, wanting to make Him king. They wanted Him to be what they wanted Him to be.
But notice, if you seek miracles and signs for belief, no miracle or sign will ever be sufficient.
And we see it here. EGS, with a boy's lunch, fed 5,000 men plus women and children, and they're saying, "Well, what sign do you perform?" "I just fed you."
You followed me at that point because I was heeding the sick.
Those are the signs and my teaching and the fact that the Father and the Scriptures and I and John the testifier, who we call the Baptist, all of them have testified exactly who I am.
That should be sufficient, but they want more. And again, that's how we tend to be. We want more proof because we don't want to really believe, because if we believe, then we must follow. And if we must follow, then He must dictate what we do and what we are.
And they go, "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat." Now, the very statement that they make saying, "Jesus, you need to give us a sign," they just accuse themselves. He says, "Well, God gave us our fathers' manna out of heaven. Jesus just gave them loaves of bread and fish."
Oh, but they're so blinded by their, I don't want to say ignorance, they're so blinded by their refusal to see.
That again, they say, "Even though you did exactly what Moses did in the wilderness and God performed, we want you to do another sign. Even though we saw you heal the sick and feed us and we followed you here, we want you to do another sign.
And Jesus then said to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven." So he corrects them, he goes, "Moses had nothing to do with the manna that came from heaven.
Moses may have been the mediator that said, "These people are restless, they need to eat and I'm in big trouble." So there wasn't Moses who came with the manna, it was God.
And just as it was God who gave them the manna out of heaven, God is giving them Jesus the bread of life, the eternal food, that which will sustain us not for a few hours, but through eternity."
He goes, "It's my Father who has given you the true bread out of heaven."
For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
You see when we eat the temporary bread, when we eat manna, when we eat Wonder Bread or
all the other breads that are out there, it doesn't satisfy, it sustains us for a little bit. It gives us calories that our body can convert into energy and we're able to do things, but it doesn't ultimately give us life. It simply sustains life. But the life that Jesus gives the life of the bread of heaven is, he not only sustains life, he gives life.
Then they said to him, "Lord, always give us this bread."
Good statement.
Kind of like the woman at the well.
When Jesus talked about the living water, she said, "Always give us the water so we don't have to come here."
And they're saying, "Give us the bread so we're sustained so we don't have to make a meal and do these things. Our life will be easier." And again, they're focused on the temporary, not the eternal. But notice they said, before they were saying, "What proof do you have?" Then now they say, "Lord, give it to us."
Well then, he must be Lord if he's going to give it to them.
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life."
This is one of the clear statements that Jesus is going to go through this gospel and identify that he's Jehovah God.
When Moses asked God during the burning bush, when God was sending him to Egypt to free his people, he goes, "Well, they're going to want to know your name. So what should I say your name is?" And he goes, "I am."
So Jesus is going to take that "I am" statement and going to drill down and say, "I am the bread of life.
I am God who gives life, not just sustains life, gives it. And he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst." So now he's going to take the bread that he's been talking about, and he's going to talk about the water that he talked to the woman at the well, and he's going to combine them. He said, "I am the true bread, and I am the true water. I give not only to sustain life, and you will never hunger, and you will never thirst.
But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe."
They have seen Jesus' miracle. They have seen Jesus provide food. They have seen Jesus' teaching. They have seen who he is, and they've seen others testify of him. And he's saying, "You've seen me. You've seen the miracles. You've seen the signs. You've seen the wonders. And still you do not believe."
That doesn't dissuade Jesus.
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me will certainly not ask of me."
Jesus is saying, "I'm not discouraged that you don't believe, because it's the Father who gives belief," as Paul will later say in his writing, "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God."
Jesus is saying, "When God gives those of his faith, I'll receive them. And when I receive them, I will never reject them."
Now, I would be really tempted to spend some time here on a big theological controversy that the church never seems to reconcile it.
Free destination or free will?
Free destination or free will? And we've seen through the centuries that people who are one side of the argument will criticize and even kill the people on the other side of the argument, and then people on the other side of the argument will kill and do the people on the other side of the argument.
I just want you to notice what Jesus is saying.
If you're dead, you can't raise yourself up.
The only one who is able to do that with Jesus because he's God.
Anybody else who has died will take Lazarus, will take the young man that Elijah raised, and others. Others through God raised them from the dead.
So it takes the spark of life that God gives to cause people to come to him.
But the other great thing about this statement is that when God calls you, Jesus never rejects you.
It doesn't matter what your previous life has been.
It doesn't matter how bad you were or how good you were. It doesn't matter what station in life, whether you grew up in a Christian home or you grew up in the most reprobate family that you can think of.
All of us are sinners, saved by grace.
And Jesus says, "I'm not looking at your resume.
If God called you, I accept."
What a wonderful promise.
What a wonderful promise that we are never, never inadequate when God calls.
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." So what's his will?
This is the will of him who sent me. "That all that he has given me, I lose nothing."
You see, there is no losing your salvation if you are truly saved.
God says, "Whoever God calls, I never accept. And once I accept you, you're not going to ever be lost.
You are secure and I will hold you." Jesus will say it other times when people make claims and they'll say, "Depart from me, I never need you." So once Jesus knows you and you know him, it doesn't matter.
That's where the world has a difficulty in accepting what the Scriptures plainly teach about grace. It's not how wonderful we are, not how good we are. It's a matter of fact, we come to church not because we're perfect, we come to church because we're sick.
We need a hospital and this is where we come to get well and to get a little better so that when we face the will, but we're not perfect and we're never going to be perfect until he comes again. Then we'll be like him.
But again, he will not lose anything. So here in this one statement, Jesus talks about the Father calling, him accepting and never losing salvation.
He also said, "Raise it up on the last day."
It doesn't matter how long it takes before Jesus comes.
We sang a song about own coming, about tombs being empty, graves being empty, no casket right there because he has given us eternal life.
And he's going to raise us up on the last day.
Now that's the body. The Scriptures also teach us that to be absent from the body is to be present with God, which means we don't soul sleep, we don't wait in purgatory, we are with him in spirit. And then when he returns and makes that final homecoming that we might go home to the Father,
he raises up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father.
It's funny, people will say, "Well, I wonder what the will of God is."
There are other passages in the Scripture that Paul will talk about that the will of God is for us to be sanctified, for us to live our lives as holy and to pray with us. He tells us certain things, but here Jesus tells us, "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life."
That's God's will.
And if you are a believer, that's God's will for you to have eternal life.
Today the world, and you'll see on the news, they'll talk about people living longer and people maybe almost having immortality and they're trying to figure out how to fix the
various DNA and all that in ourselves that we don't wear out.
The problem with living longer is it doesn't change anything.
We all lose friends, people we're bad-mouthed of, our reputation at times will be mauched,
we can get sick, we can get hurt, we can experience loss financially or physically, all those things. We will have all those things come.
But God doesn't give us a promise of just long life.
He gives us a promise of eternal life with him in his presence so that the Son believes in him will have eternal life and I myself, Jesus, will raise him up on the last.
And the sound of that so far now.
And the dead in Christ will rise and those who are alive and remain will be caught up in the air and we will meet Jesus.
But enough, Jesus himself in the air and he will be Lord of Lord, he will be King of Kings and he will be our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, all of those things and it's not some, it's him that we will see and dwell with.
He makes a personal promise.
He doesn't say, "Well, and my father," but he acknowledges he and the father are one. He goes, "I'm giving you this promise. I will raise you up."
And as Jesus will say, not only does he, "I am the bread of life," he will say, "I am who, I am the resurrection."
He can guarantee it because he is it and we can have trust in him because he has the power and authority to do what he says and what he says he will do. And all God's people say.
Thank you.