May 21, 2017

John 6:22-59: The Bread of Life

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Series: The Gospel of John: That You May Believe Scripture: John 6:22–59

John 6:22-59: The Bread of Life

Please take your Bible and turn with me to John 6. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 739. For those of you who are visiting with us this morning, we’ve been systematically working our way through the Gospel of John passage by passage. And last week, we looked at Jesus taking five loaves of bread and two fish and miraculously turning it into enough food to feed thousands and thousands of people. And we pick up today with what happened after he did that in John 6:22-59. And since this unit of text is so large, we’re going to focus our attention on verses 22-40. 

John 6:22-40:On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work 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.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “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.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 

Not too long ago, my wife’s parents and sister were visiting us, and we decided to go out to a restaurant in order to enjoy a nice evening together. So we loaded our kids into the van and headed over to the Eat’n’Park in Whitehall. And it was, I think, a Friday or Saturday evening, so of course we had to wait a little while in order to be seated—probably about 20 or 30 minutes, which wasn’t too bad since it was about what we were expecting. But as we were waiting, there was some kind of power outage so that most of the power in the building suddenly stopped working. The lights became dim, the cash registers had issues, and we overheard employees saying that there were some problems in the kitchen. And the power didn’t show any sign of coming back on anytime soon. But they seated us, and we got our menus and started looking at what we would eat for dinner. We had definitely acquired an appetite by this point. But then we discovered that the problem in the kitchen was that nothing was working in the kitchen. And that certainly is a little bit of a problem if you’re hoping to eat food. So we put two and two together and figured out that food was going to be a long time in coming, so we decide it would be best to go to another restaurant. So we pile into the van and go down the road to Denny’s. Now by this point, everybody is pretty hungry. It’s been well over an hour, and we’re just now pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant where we’re going to eat. And if you’ve ever been around small children very much, you know that they get cranky when they don’t get their food on time. In fact, all of us were getting cranky because we weren’t eating on time. So we go into Denny’s, get a seat, and order our food like usual. And as we’re waiting for our food, the kids are freaking out, my poor pregnant wife is starting to feel faint, and all of us are just trying to survive. And as we were sitting there waiting for our food, I had a moment of mental clarity despite my grumbling stomach. And I thought to myself, “Wow. How crazy is it that we’ve only missed dinner by one and a half or two hours—not exactly a life-threatening situation—but we just can’t handle it. It’s affecting our mood, our energy, and our ability to just enjoy the evening. Such a relatively small deprivation is affecting us in such a big way.” 

And when you think about it, it is pretty crazy. But that’s the way God made us; he made us as creatures that are very much dependent on food and driven by our appetite. And I think he did that for a reason. I think God wanted our need for food to serve as a constant reminder of our need for him—and specifically our need for salvation through his Son, Jesus. And that’s exactly the illustration Jesus uses in our main text of Scripture this morning to teach people about who he is. The main thrust of what he tells them here in John 6 is that he is the bread that gives true life. Jesus is the bread that gives true life. And in the text, we see that there are two ways people try to get what they need: working for food that perishes and savoring the bread of life.  

Working for Food That Perishes 

So the first way people try to get what they need is working for food that perishes. In verses 26-27, Jesus says to the crowds that were following him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw [miraculous] signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” So Jesus knew what they were after. He knew that the only reason these people were following him was because they wanted to get another free meal like they had gotten when he miraculously multiplied the bread and fish earlier in the chapter. And he tells them, “Don’t work for food that perishes.”

You know, I wonder how many people—even some who attend church—spend their lives working for food that perishes. In my opinion, that’s probably the greatest tragedy in the world. There’s a lot of tragic things in this world, of course—disease, war, hunger, deprivation. But I think the greatest tragedy is that so many people spend their entire lives busily going here and there to get this and that, but all they’re doing is working for food that perishes. They’re spending all their effort to get all these things—all this stuff—and all the while, it never seems to sink in that all these earthly things are so temporary, so transient. They’re here one moment and gone the next. They amount to nothing more than food that perishes.

I remember when I was a young child, I really liked getting new shoes. And I got this one pair of new shoes that had Spiderman on them. They had this shiny material on the side with a picture of Spiderman shooting out his web. They were pretty cool. And I was so proud of them I would walk around like this so I didn’t have to bend my toes when I walked and in doing so put a crease in those shoes. And obviously, I would clean them just about every day. After all, that’s just basic new shoe maintenance. But I remember how, despite my best efforts, the day finally came when I discovered a scuff mark on my shoe. And it wasn’t just a small scuff mark. It was big, and it had some depth to it, so I couldn’t just wipe it off. And I remember how that ruined my whole day. But that’s just what happens. New shoes become old shoes. New cars become old cars. New furniture becomes old furniture. Everything on this earth will one day perish. And yet, so many people spend so much of their lives pursuing earthly things or, in Jesus’ words, working for food that perishes.

So if you think about it, our problem isn’t that we seek too much; it’s that we settle for far too little. We’re not working for the good food; we’re just working for the food that perishes. As C. S. Lewis writes, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” So our problem isn’t that we seek too much pleasure or too much joy; it’s that we don’t seek nearly enough. We content ourselves with the cheap thrills of this world when God offers us infinite joy and infinite pleasure in him. Lewis compares us to “an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.” Just like that child, “we are far too easily pleased.”

Savoring the Bread of Life

However, there is another option. And that is, point number two, savoring the Bread of Life. Savoring the Bread of Life. Look at verses 30-35: “So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “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.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

So in verse 33, Jesus calls himself “the bread of God who gives life,” and then in verse 35, he calls himself “the bread of life.” What’s he saying? Well, just like physical bread gives physical sustenance, Jesus is the bread that gives spiritual sustenance. You see, without physical bread or food of any kind, we would die. You and I don’t have the necessary resources within ourselves to sustain ourselves. We need something from the outside to nourish us and give us what we need to survive. And in a similar way, the Bible tells us that we need outside help spiritually as well. You see, God created us for his own glory and gave us the privilege of communing with him in perfect paradise. But you know how we responded to that? We rebelled against God. The Bible calls that rebellion sin. And because of our sin, several things immediately happened to all humanity. We became alienated from God since he’s holy and we’re sinful, we became spiritual dead on the inside, and we earned for ourselves God’s judgment in hell for all eternity. That’s our predicament. And the Bible teaches that there’s nothing we can do to rescue ourselves. 

Thankfully, as we see in our main text, Jesus is the Bread of Life—the bread that provides spiritual life. As Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus is the Bread of Life. And the reason he’s able to be the Bread of Life is because 2,000 years ago, he entered into human history, becoming a real human being, and then died on the cross to take the penalty for our sin. Our sin was placed on his shoulders so that he suffered for it on the cross instead of us having to suffer for it in hell. And then he triumphantly rose from the dead so that he’s now able to offer rescue to everyone who will turn to him and put their trust in him to do that. 

That’s why, in our passage, Jesus says he’s far superior to physical bread. Look down at verses 48-51: “I am the bread of life.  Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” So Jesus says he’s superior to the manna that the Israelites ate during their desert wanderings. Because that manna was only life-giving in the sense that it delayed death, but Jesus is life-giving in the sense that he overcomes death.  

But not only does Jesus overcome death and offer us salvation, there’s something else contained in that phrase “Bread of Life” as well. You see, bread doesn’t just help us survive; it also satisfies our hunger. When you haven’t eaten for a while, think about how satisfying it is to eat a nice, big meal of really good food. That food satisfies you. And that’s what Jesus does for us. In fact, Jesus is the only thing that can satisfy the hungry soul. But there’s an important difference as well between Jesus and physical food. Whenever you eat physical food—no matter how good it is—you’re hungry all over again in just a few hours. I remember several years ago, when Becky and I were newlyweds, taking her on a date to a little hole-in-the-wall place called “Pizza Chef.” And Pizza Chef was kind of an odd place to go on a date because they didn’t have any tables; you just got everything to go. So whenever we went there, we’d have to take our food to a park or something and eat there. But the reason we went was because it was so good. Seriously, I’ve never had anything else like it for that style of food. I’d always get the toasted Italian hoagie, and that thing was amazing. In fact, it was so amazing that one time as Becky and I were eating, I was apparently expressing my profound satisfaction with sound effects and different kinds of grunts and groans as I ate. Classic newlywed mistake—because to say the least, Becky did not appreciate that. She pointed out that I never made those kinds of noises when I was eating her cooking, and on top of that, I hadn’t said one word to her on our date ever since I started eating my food. And as I look back on that situation, I recognize that I probably should have handled things differently, and I don’t think I’ve behaved like that on subsequent dates. But I’m telling you: that was a really good hoagie. 

And yet, here’s the thing: as good as that hoagie was, guess what happened just a few hours later? Sure enough, I became hungry again. But look what Jesus says in verse 35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” No matter how good physical food tastes or how much it satisfies you, you always get hungry again. But with Jesus, he satisfies you not just for a few hours but for all eternity. Jesus said the same thing back in John 4:13 when he was using the metaphor of “living water.” As he was sitting by a well, he said to the woman he was talking to, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” He’s saying the same thing. When you’re satisfied with Jesus, you’re satisfied forever. When you’re satisfied with Jesus, you’re satisfied forever. 

And that’s really what Christianity is all about. It’s not just about being forgiven of our sins and getting a ticket out of hell. That’s just what we’ve been saved from. I believe Christianity is mainly about what we’ve been saved into—a relationship with Jesus that satisfies us on a level that we didn’t even know existed. It’s about a deep and full and rich and authentic joy in Christ that only those who’ve experienced it can understand. Don’t fall into the trap C. S. Lewis warns us about. Don’t be like the great majority of people in this society who are, Lewis says, “far too easily pleased.” Let me encourage you to look beyond the gifts and look to the Giver. Delight yourself in him above all. 

And I believe it’s when you start doing that that you truly start being Christian. Think about it. I remember in high school, there was a group of students known as skaters. And skaters had a lot of things in common. They wore similar clothing, listened to similar music, and just had their own distinct style. But what do you think the most important part of being a skater was? Not surprisingly, it was going skateboarding. By definition, a skater is someone to likes to ride a skateboard. And if you tried to act like the skaters without riding a skateboard, they would call you a “poser” because you were just pretending to be a skater. You weren’t the real thing. And that makes sense. In order to be a skater, you have to skateboard. And it’s the same way with a lot of other things: in order to be a golfer, you have to golf. In order to be an instrumentalist, you have to play an instrument. And in order to be a Christian, you have to savor Jesus as the Bread of Life, actively delighting in him and looking to him as your greatest joy. 

Conclusion

Perhaps you’ve never done that. Maybe you’ve attended church, been baptized, tried to be a good person, and done a list of other religious things, but you’ve never delighted yourself in Jesus himself. This morning, I invite you to do that. In verse 37 of our text, Jesus declares, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” So if you’ll come to him, he’s not gonna turn you away. So put your trust in him as the Bread of Life who can do for you what you can never do for yourself. Back in verse 29, when the crowds asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God,” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” That’s what God wants you to do; he wants you to believe. 

And if you’re here and you’re already a Christian, I’d like to invite you to think long and hard about what we’ve talked about today. I heard one pastor recently talking about “the barrenness of the busy life.” That’s what he called it, “the barrenness of the busy life.” That’s what happens when we spend our lives rushing from one engagement to the next but never get alone with God for the purpose of delighting ourselves in him. And listen: you may be doing some very good things. Many of your engagements may even be related to ministering to others in the church or reaching out to people who need the gospel. But beware of the barrenness of the busy life. Just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you’re effective. Let me ask you: How often to you get alone with God and hold your Bible open and beg God to reveal himself to you so that you can delight in him and savor his Son as the Bread of Life? It’s when you start doing that that you start being recognizable as a Christian, as one who practices Christianity.

other sermons in this series