You are what you eat

John chapter 6. Having touched upon the feeding
of the 5,000 and then that miraculous crossing of the sea for Christ
on foot, for the disciples in a boat, which created much ministry
opportunity for Christ with those men We come now to a section
beginning in verse 22 all the way through the end of the chapter
which is exclusive to John’s Gospel. None of the synoptics
touch on any of these things. It comes in the context of the
fact that the people wanted to make Jesus their very Jewish
king. They wanted him to be king of
the nation of Israel. Jesus had just presented himself
to the disciples as not king of Israel, but king really of
all creation. In John’s discourse that follows here in
verse 22, and it’s, if you look at it, it’s interspersed with
a series of questions that almost seem to interrupt what Christ
is declaring. We know that this was delivered
probably even in the synagogue at Capernaum. And this really
marks a turning point for Christ’s ministry. Up to this point it’s
been much about curiosity. There’s been a lot of interest
in Christ’s ministry. But now we mark a turning point. That ultimately of departure
even of some of his own disciples. And it’s because of the things
that are taught here in John chapter six. Really, I think
the best way to digest this is to go back once again and to
hear John chapter six in its entirety, and then we will begin
tackling verses 22 and following. If you would, verse one. After
these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea
of Galilee, or Tiberias. A large crowd followed him because
they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were
sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down
with his disciples. Now, the Passover, the Feast
of the Jews, was near. Therefore Jesus, lifting up his
eyes, and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said
to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?
This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was
intending to do. Philip answered him, Two hundred
denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone
to receive a little. One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, there is a lad here who
has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for
so many people? Jesus said, have the people sit
down. Now, there was much grass in
the place, so the men sat down and number about 5,000. Jesus
then took the loaves and having given thanks, he distributed
to those who were seated likewise also of the fish as much as they
wanted. When they were filled, he said
to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing
will be lost. So they gathered them up and
filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which
were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore, when the people
saw the sign which he had performed, They said, this is truly the
prophet who has come into the world. So Jesus, perceiving that
they were intending to come and take him by force to make him
king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. Now when evening
came, his disciples went down to the sea, and after getting
into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It
had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea began to be stirred up, because a strong wind was blowing.
Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw
Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat. They
were frightened. But He said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid. so they were
willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat
was at the land to which they were going. The next day, the
crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there
was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had
not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples
had gone away alone. There came other small boats
from Tiberias near to the place ate 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
small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found
him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi,
when did you get here? Jesus answered them and said,
truly, truly, I say to you, You seek me not because you saw signs,
but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work
for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures
to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For
on him the Father God has set his seal. Therefore they said
to him, what shall we do so that we may work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God, that
you believe in him whom he has sent. 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? Our fathers ate manna in the
wilderness. As it is written, he gave them
bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, 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. For the bread of God is that
which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, I am the
bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger,
And he who believes in me will 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 the one who comes to
me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who
sent me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all
He has given Me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the
Son and believes Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will
raise Him up on the last day. Therefore the Jews were grumbling
about Him, because he said, I am the bread that came down out
of heaven. They were saying, is this not
Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How
does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? Jesus answered
and said to them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can
come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I
will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard
and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen
the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the
Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread
which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and
not die. I am the living bread that came
down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever. The bread also which I will give
for the life of the world is my flesh.’ Then the Jews began
to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and
my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent
me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he
will also live because of me. This is the bread which came
down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread were lived
forever. These things he said in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Therefore, many of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, this is a difficult statement. Who
can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his
disciples grumbled at this, said to them, does this cause you
to stumble? What then if you see the Son
of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit
who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken
to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who
do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were who did not believe and who it was who would betray
him. And he was saying, for this reason
I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has
been granted Him from the Father. As a result of this, many of
His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the Twelve,
You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered
Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We have believed and have come
to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them,
did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you
is a devil? Now he met Judas, the son of
Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray
him. It’s a story about bread. It’s a story about the bread
of life. And it was all really produced by God’s sovereign provision
by that miracle that Jesus had worked with those five small
loaves. It generated this great, big, long discussion about bread. And we see, even in this passage,
that ultimately what that generates is the idea of three different
kinds of bread. Look if you would. There is the
bread that is introduced to us in verses 22 through 27. There
is what I would call the bread of earth. Real bread. The food which perishes. Simple
bread which most of us have already enjoyed even today. There’s another
kind of bread, though, and there was confusion and, by Jesus’
part, clarification on each of these kinds of bread that we’ll
consider for the next several weeks. There was not only the
bread of earth, real bread, natural bread, homemade, whether it has
gluten or not. There was another kind of bread
that was the bread of heaven. That bread is introduced in verses
28 through 33 There was confusion on that bread
as well. There was bread out of heaven
that the Jews were very familiar with, that of manna, and Jesus
has clarification on that particular kind of bread. But there was
a third kind of bread, and while it’s introduced in verse 33,
Jesus really elucidates upon this bread in verses 34 through
40. That bread is the bread of life,
and there was much confusion. about that particular bread.
Three kinds of bread. All of them generate confusion,
misunderstanding. And all of them Jesus offers
a gracious and divine clarification. Now we’ll come back in the weeks
that follow to kind of zero in on one of the great controversies
on John chapter six. Most people believe, especially when it comes to those verses
later in this discussion, that of actually eating this bread,
which is Christ’s flesh, and drinking His blood, there are
many who believe that this is the introduction of the Lord’s
table, a presentation of the elements. Well, that certainly
helps to begin to understand compartmentalize that whole concept
of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. We’ll come
back to that argument in the weeks that follow, but today
I just want to look at the first of these three different kinds
of bread, the bread of earth. There were three kinds of bread,
as I’ve said, the bread of earth, the bread of heaven, and the
bread of life, and we’ll consider each in time. But there was much
confusion, and essentially the confusion about the bread of
life was that they had it out of context. And to a large degree,
we have bread, food, out of context even in our own day. Our obsession with all things
pertaining to food has become the new national pastime, hasn’t
it? We not only now read the labels,
we have many of the ingredients memorized. So that we know exactly
what to look for when we go to the label. That if it has that
one particular element in it, we know that we are to avoid
it. Whether it’s red dye number two,
or the yellow dye, or some particular chemical whose name we really
can’t pronounce, we just know it when we see it. So creative
have these labels become that they’ve begun renaming some of
the chemicals so that we don’t even know what it is anymore,
right? We have to read the labels. We
have to count the calories. That alone would make us obsessed
with food, preoccupied with it. We know that we’re supposed to
examine the content. We need to determine whether
it is GMO or non-GMO. We know that we have to reduce
and or eliminate all trans fats out of our diet, if that is even
remotely possible. We know that we need to reduce
and eliminate sugar, especially the white refined kind. We know
that we need to reduce and or eliminate salt, which is really
discouraging. We know that we need to eat more
vegetables, and by all means, eat more fiber. We know that
some of the information that comes to us is quite inconsistent,
isn’t it? One night, we’ll hear a report
that says, whatever you do, don’t drink caffeine. It seems like
within the week, we’ll hear another report that says studies have
shown that a little bit of caffeine is actually good for you. Don’t
drink red wine. some red wine. Don’t take vitamins. You don’t need vitamins. What
you should be taking are a few vitamins. Same thing happens
with butter and margarine. It goes back and forth. Now we’re
told that we need to take our probiotics, that we can’t live
without them. We need to eat nightshades very
sparingly. We need to eat more legumes. Don’t eat gluten. Drink water,
just don’t drink it with a meal. And so you come away with us
thinking, what must Christ be thinking
if Martha was distracted by so many things, what must He think
of our preparation just to have a snack? Now, my, there is nothing morally
wrong with any of those concerns, and some people but it’s only
right and proper that they do take concern about some of those
particulars. My point, which is really Jesus’
point in this first consideration, is that if physical food and
the contents of it are our only concern or our primary concern,
then we entirely miss the point. because our focus ought to be
spiritual. If there was ever a people that
needed to hear this message, it was the Jews of Christ’s day.
They came to him and they were absolutely fixated on food. They had just enjoyed one of
the greatest miracles that mankind had ever been shown. Not the
walking on the water, because that was really only designed
for 12 men. I’m talking about the feeding
of the 5,000. It was absolutely astounding what happened. And
they knew the miracle. This wasn’t lost on them. They
were unaware of that miracle. They saw it, they witnessed it,
and they missed the point entirely. That before them stood one who
was not like them, nor was he a prophet as they supposed. This was the very Son of God.
I’ve entitled this message, You Are What You Eat, and I wanted
to examine the value, not the nutritional value,
but the spiritual value of our bread. I told you there were
three kinds of bread, the bread of earth, the bread of heaven,
and the bread of life. I want to look at three over the next
couple of weeks. We may blend the second and third,
but I want to look, first of all, at the bread of earth. And
I want to look at the confusion and the clarification about the
bread of earth in a subtitle that I might append to it, has
kind of a Puritan feel to it. They refer to this kind of living
as base living, where you’re focused on only the base elementary
areas of life, food and clothing, and you brush aside, you pay
little attention to the spiritual aspects of life. First of all,
there’s clear evidence of base living. We see it in verse 22. The next day, the crowd, and
we don’t know exactly how many were there, some of them possibly
had gone home, but the crowd tying in to the crowd that had
been mentioned earlier, the crowd of 5,000 that stood on the other
side of the sea, saw that there were no other small boats there
except one, that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into
the boat, but his disciples had gone away alone. It’s a really clumsy sentence
in the Greek. What John does here is he starts
a sentence and then just almost inserts a parenthesis and inserts
more data as he goes along. The next day, the crowd saw there
weren’t other boats there, but his disciples had gone away alone.
That’s essentially as much as we can simplify it. But there’s
a lot of other data there. Some people have surmised that
these were extra words that were pinned in the margin and then
slowly migrated in. There is absolutely no evidence
of that. When the evidence is there and
they put the passage in italics, I tell you so, right? Remember
the details that we dealt with earlier in John 5. But here,
there’s no evidence that these words were added or inserted
by a later scribe. This is John thinking back and
remembering and adding detail as he wrote. One person said, even though
this is a complicated sentence, very unusual for John’s gospel,
but its very intricacy is evidence of its accuracy. A writer of
fiction would have given fewer details and stated them with
greater freedom. John explains what is well known
to him. In other words, John is telling
us exactly what happened. You have this crowd that stood
on the other side. You have these people. and they’re
looking for Christ. They know the disciples left
because they were there when they dispatched, and now Jesus
is nowhere to be found, and they are looking for an explanation
for that. It’s all right there. Basically, this crowd was so
fixated on Christ because of what He had done, not because
of who He was or who they were discovering Him to be, they’re
fixated on the fact that Jesus had done this miracle regarding
food, and they would like to see it command performance. That’s
essentially what it comes down to. So they’re looking for Christ,
and they’re gathering facts. That’s what they’re doing. They’re
just beginning to gather facts. We remember seeing the disciples
get on the boat, did not get on the boat, but Jesus is not
here, where did He go? Some of the
more zealous ones perhaps were still in great numbers the next
morning. Maybe they had even remained
awake all night at the scene of this miracle, hoping that
Christ would return. Remember, their big design was
to make him king, whether he wanted to be king or not. Some
of the people, no doubt, had dispersed, perhaps the women
and children. But part of the people doggedly
remained there. They refused to go away. They’re
gathering facts, and we come to verse 23, and it says, there
came other small boats. We don’t know how many, it doesn’t
tell us how many, but it does say that these boats either came,
were sailed from Tiberias, or they drifted in off the lake
because of the strong winds the night before, but they’re there.
In this little cove, ready and waiting. And I love the way John
does this. There’s this really funny parenthesis
that’s inserted here in verse 23. There came other small boats
from Tiberias. That was enough. That’s all the
information that we really need for the story, right? After all,
we’re gonna need to know how 5,000 people get transported
to the other side. Well, he tells us these other
small boats came, drifted in, sailed in, whatever the case
may be, there they are. But then he inserts this really
interesting piece of depth. There came other small boats
from Tiberias near to the place where they ate bread after the
Lord had given thanks. John won’t let it go, will he?
The Apostle John, now writing many years later, keeps alive
this miraculous event which should have been alive in the minds
of these people, the loaves and the fishes. And he keeps it alive
by mentioning it here His point is that they too should have
still been pondering Christ’s nature because of this miracle.
But we come to verse 24, and it says that, so when the crowd
saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they knew
his disciples were gone, their concern really was all and only
about Christ. It says, when they saw that Jesus
was gone, they themselves got into the small boats and came
to Capernaum. seeking Jesus. We don’t know how many small
boats there were. There were many that said the physical impossibility
to transport 5,000 people, it isn’t impossible. We don’t know
how many boats were there. It’s quite likely that a great
number of them had already dispersed. It’s still a crowd and the crowd
gets in the boats. We find ourselves in verse 25.
They sail across the sea and it says in verse 25, when they
found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi,
when did you get here? I think they really believed
that something miraculous had taken place. They didn’t know
about the walking on the water. They certainly knew that there
were no other boats. They don’t believe that Jesus
went all the way around the south end of this lake. They are suspicious. They want
some proof. They want some data. They think
that it’s very possible that He had done something miraculous. But if you notice, Jesus never
does open His hand. He never does tip His hand to
the fact that something miraculous had indeed happened. These men
were ready and willing to make him, against his will, some kind
of earthly king, and he knows it would do little good to focus
their attention on the real question at hand, his divine nature, and
so he doesn’t, he never does open up with that data. He never does tell them would
have taken place the night before, not just when he got there, because
the real question is how, isn’t it? A lot of times we do that. We’ll
ask a question, a kind of a lead-in question that really is designed
to generate some conversation, and Jesus doesn’t allow any of
it. We see this crowd repeatedly. in their operation of their base
living. That’s kind of where they live.
We’ll see it in verse 26. We’ll see it in verses 42 and
43. We’ll see it again in verse 52.
They just operate on a plane that is sub-spiritual. And so
Jesus starts by rebuking this base living. All they’re about
is really securing their next meal, a free one, a diet. If we can only find Jesus, you
know, it is breakfast time. We need to find Jesus. We don’t care who He really is. We know what we would like Him
to be. We know what we would like to appoint Him to be. And so Jesus rebukes this base living. Look at verse 26. Jesus answered them and said,
Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs,
but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Now wait one
minute. They never said any of that. What they really wanted
to know is, Jesus, when did you get here? But Jesus sees right
through it. Jesus sees through their questioning,
and He completely ignores it. And I would add, quite graciously,
Jesus isn’t going to be drawn into this little debate, this
little skirmish, let me tell you about this miracle that took
place. Oh, wow. He ignores it completely,
and he instead goes right to the heart of the matter, their
spiritual indifference, their base living. You’ve already seen
the proof of it, this is the review. He judges their question
as being totally superficial. You’re just after some more bread. What do we do, toast it now for
breakfast? You’re just after the basic elements
of life and you won’t even pause to consider the greatness of
the miracle and the greatness of the one who stands before
you. Not only was their question superficial, it was really irrelevant.
Jesus wasn’t going to tell them about the miracle. In God’s providence
He has told all of humanity in the years that have followed
that for these people it would have been detrimental to the
purpose to tell them about the nature of the miracle. This is common for Christ, isn’t
it? God knows what we need most and
He knew in this particular setting They had seen one miracle and
had already had them off track. Telling them about this other
miracle would not have been helpful to them. It would have been of
no use. So the miracle of Jesus walking
on water, as we have seen, was for the apostles only. Not for
the general public. Not for this crowd. So instead
of answering their question, Jesus goes right to the part
of the matter, and he rebukes them, essentially. We don’t see
it as such. We maybe read this more graciously than perhaps was designed,
because it is a rebuke. They had seen this miraculous
beating of the 5,000, and if for a moment they paused
to interpret it correctly, If they had stopped to think about
the nature of this miracle, just the stupendous, amazing nature
of this miracle, that this had to be very God before them because
it was a creative miracle to feed that many people with so
little food, had they stopped to think of it, it would have led them to faith.
Faith not in a prophet who had worked a fantastic miracle, but
faith in Almighty God who stood before them. And that faith,
just like the Samaritan faith, would have been pleasing to God,
but this kind of interest, this fascination, this enthusiasm,
whatever it was, was less than faith, and it was less than acceptable
to Christ. As one said of the Lord’s rebuke,
laid bare their selfish, materialistic hearts. So blinded were they
by their superficial desire for food and miracles that they missed
the true spiritual significance of Jesus’ person and mission. They had seen the miracles. They
even ate miraculous food. But they didn’t pause to consider
it for a moment. the spiritual nature of the one
before them. They hadn’t reflected on any
of the significance of the signs. All they saw was free food, free
bread. And in the sign of the bread
and the fish, when they no doubt had witnessed it, it was unmistakable,
they didn’t draw the conclusion that before them stood the very
Messiah. It was a free meal and nothing
else. One commentator nailed it when
he said, with a purpose and a spirit so low an animal bates living. With a purpose and a spirit so
low an animal, these men were beneath the reach of and imperceptible
of the father’s drawings. They couldn’t even see. the nature
of the man that stood before them in the gospel that he held
forth. They had no susceptibility for those drawings to take hold
of. And I love this image. Just as wood is unaffected by
the attraction of the magnet. That’s how dull they were to
the drawings of Christ. That’s how dull they were to
the gospel. That’s how dull they were to
the nature of Christ, all they had seen. The sad thing is, it grieves me to drive in on
a Sunday and to see people riding their bike, you know they’re
not heading to church. It grieves me to see people as
I drive in, they’re going about with their boat on top of their
truck, it grieves me to see People dining in a patio restaurant
on the Lord’s Day with no intention of going to church, those things
grieve me. Mowing their lawn, those kinds
of things. Those things ought to grieve
us. Those are the people that we need to reach, reach out to. But there are a great many people,
you would admit, that do go to church. But they’re going to church for
all the wrong reasons. Their heart isn’t in it. They
don’t really understand and grasp the gospel. They’re going because
they’re in charge of something or because they want to make
contacts there at church. Because they want to be seen.
After all, it is a social event. One pastor said similar. It’s
a sad exposure of the true reason why many follow our Lord. both
on this occasion and on others. It was not now even the desire
to see miracles performed, as it had been the day before. When
the novelty is past, they would cease to astonish and attract. But it was a lower, more carnal
motive even still. It was the mere wish to be fed
again. And there are some people who go to church just because
they think that God is a genie. They’ve got to keep Him pleased.
Gotta keep God happy because He’s given me so much, so I go
really out of course and base motives even still. Sometimes we have no idea why
people come to church. Maybe they have to go to church.
Maybe somebody made them go to church. Maybe they feel some
compunction from without. Somebody’s taking role. It’s one of the hard duties of
a pastor is to really call people on motives when we begin to see
them. And when we begin to see them,
it is our, I would tell you, it is our duty, we are commanded
to confront people. You can’t consider it kindness
to leave those things unsaid. When professing people are here
because they think that being here makes them saved, it doesn’t.
And we need to tell them that. Jesus was aware of the fact that
they needed food. Jesus was aware that food is
a part of our daily life. Jesus was aware that they even
needed breakfast, likely. But Jesus’ concern was greater than
just breakfast. Jesus’ concern was greater than
physical or earthly food, those base elements of life. Jesus
was interested in their spiritual well-being. And we should be
interested in one another’s spiritual well-being. We should be interested
in our neighbor’s spiritual well-being. Did you go to church today? What
did you eat? No, no, no, no, no. I’m not talking
about the donuts and coffee. I don’t care if it was gourmet.
What did you eat? I don’t care if they were Krispy
Kremes. What was the spiritual meal? Upon what did you feast? What did you feed your soul,
or with what were you fed? That’s Jesus’ concern. You see, the point that He makes
here is that this bodily satisfaction, this food, it’s passing, it’s
fleeting. He had just fed them, miraculously,
the night before, and they’re already likely hungry all over
again. Jesus says, in his confrontation, he says, you
seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves
and were filled. Your tummy is growling, and that’s
the only reason you’re here? And then he not only rebukes
their base living, but he corrects it. And this is such a gracious
appeal. Look at verse 27. the correction
of base living. He’s seen the evidence. He has
rebuked their base living, and now he seeks to correct it, and
he says in verse 27, do not work for the food which perishes.
Don’t work for that daily food that just is here today and gone,
but work for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give you. For on him the Father God has
set his seal.” There’s a strain of thought that
runs through this dialogue, that of work and working. Jesus was
not in any way suggesting that, you know, we can kick back now
because God’s going to provide our every need. We don’t need
a job anymore. We don’t need to work for food.
Jesus said it. It’s not at all what he says. He says, in comparison, Remember
that imbalance? That if all we did was focus
on ingredients and whether it’s GMO or not, if that’s all we
thought about for our life and could care little about the spiritual
nourishment that we received, if all we cared about was our
physical health and never once gave thought to our spiritual
health, that’s what’s in focus. And Jesus says, don’t get all
wrapped up, don’t get consumed, don’t be, overly concerned or
excessively concerned about the satisfaction, the food of your
bodies, all that food is perishing. Isn’t it amazing that when you
take a bite of something that just is incredible, that that flavor is like gone
within seconds? And so you have to take another,
that’s what leads to a problem, isn’t it? We take another bite
and another bite. We would love to savor it, but
it doesn’t stay very long. It perishes. And the point that ultimately
would be made throughout this entire discourse, they want to
constantly bring up manna. They wanted Jesus to do another
manna work. You know, you fed us last night,
that’s over. Now it’s morning. We need some
more manna. We need to start this regular
thing. Jesus says, don’t work for the
food that perishes, but manna even perished. Remember this
story? It wasn’t enough that God had
provided manna. Now they complain and gripe,
and now God provides additional food, the quail. And even that,
You know, their tummies were full, but even that wasn’t enough.
Now we gotta hoard the stuff, remember? And what a, what a
frightening thing that takes place with regards to the manna. Not only did it perish, but it
just, you know, nobody wanted to touch it. They didn’t listen to Moses,
Exodus 16 says. They left it till morning and
it bred worms and stank. It perishes. It’s not good for
anything. And the food that they were so
interested in, that physical food, that bread, those fish,
it was perishing. But Jesus points to another kind
of food, food that remains, food that We’ll stay with them forever,
food that will nourish them once and be good for eternity. Oh, this had to just, I mean,
they had to just back up in stunned silence as to what Jesus was
referring to. Don’t work for the food which
perishes, but for the food, some kind of food which endures, lasts,
stays, abides to eternal life. And you would have thought that
this would have generated a long line of questions. How do we
secure that particular food? We want that food. Jesus, teach
us. We sit at your feet in humble
silence. Tell us what you mean. That’s
not what happened. First there’s an almost foolish line of questioning
that flows, and then ultimately accusations and recrimination
of Christ. Jesus wasn’t forbidding us working
for our food, but he does urge us to dig in and engage after
spiritual food. The simple meaning was that we should
take far more effort about the supply of our spiritual food. We should take more care for
our… You talk about reading the labels. When was the last
time you checked out background on one of the authors of that
Christian book you’re reading. When was the last time that you
examined his words in light of what Scripture teaches? We should take far more care
in our prayer, in our reading of God’s Word. We should spend
ten times more in God’s Word than we do in popular Christian
literature, no matter who the pastor is. who wrote it, or public
preaching. We should be nourishing ourselves
by those means. That’s what Jesus was talking
about. Because that’s the only thing that matters. It’s God’s
Word. We should work hard. We should
strive for that kind of spiritual food. We should look for the
supply of those kinds of things for our souls. We should keep
our priorities in order. As one pastor said, the satisfaction
of the cravings of the soul and conscience, which is the grand
want of human nature. Did you hear what he said? He
said there’s nothing bigger, there’s no bigger hole to fill. You can actually eat to the point
where you cannot possibly eat anymore. There’s a much bigger
void than that in your being, and it’s your soul. Your soul
longs to be filled with spiritual nourishment. And he goes on to
say that mercy and grace, pardon of sin, a new heart, those are
the gifts which alone can fill the soul. And once they are given,
they can never be taken away. They endure forever. Here was a people standing face
to face with the Savior himself, the Son of God. having come down
and taken on human flesh, and having performed an amazing miracle
in their midst, they still hadn’t even begun
to wrestle with the need of mercy. They should have fallen on their
faces and pleaded for mercy on the spot. They should have longed
for grace, the grace of God, without which no person can be
saved. They knew their own putrid, sinful
hearts. They should have longed for Christ
to renew them and make them new, give them a new heart. They should
have longed for salvation, and they didn’t. And I love the way that it says this.
You see the gracious heart of the Savior here, don’t you? Do
not work for the food which perishes. Concerned only about their next
meal. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food
which endures to eternal life. Get this. Which the Son of Man
will give to you. For on Him the Father has set
His seal. Here stands Jesus, ready. Is there no doubt Psalm in the
midst of this story? We, I don’t think that it’s necessary
that we conclude that all 5,000 of them said, ah, you know, there were probably some who
heard this, who were pierced, who began to realize what he
was talking about, maybe not that morning, but in time. And note the way that he says this,
the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father God has
set His seal. Do you know what they used the
seal for in those days? It was like a signature. And
they dripped a hot chunk of wax, and then they took essentially
a stamp, and they stamped into the hot wax. And that was essentially
your mark that this document is legitimate, it has my name
on it. I have okayed this. And I love the way this is. that
on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father God has already set his
seal. We kind of tend to think that,
well, it was the resurrection, actually, or essentially the
ascension. That’s when God really approved
it. Or the resurrection, that’s when God approved of what Christ
had done. Or maybe even coming down and
taking on human flesh. Or when he was baptized, that’s
when God really even spoke at that one from eternity past. From every
moment in the great unfolding plan of redemption, the Father
set His seal on Christ. There was no other. Now that
will generate no little discussion, the fact that the Father had
approved of Him. But Jesus’ point to these really
wayward, base, really simplistic people was a message of grace. that God has sent a Savior. God has put His stamp of approval
on the one and only Savior, and that we would do well to sit
at His feet and to seek true and lasting spiritual nourishment. Let’s humble ourselves before
Him. Our merciful God, We come before you and we submit
ourselves to you. What a gracious Savior. A Savior
who had so faithfully and eagerly gone after His own 12 disciples,
setting up that amazing scene to firm up their own faith in
the Master that Lord Jesus Christ. just so masterfully and just
so sovereignly. You planned it all. They saw
that you didn’t get on the boat. They saw that there were no other
boats. And they were led to wonder how.
How did you get to the other side? And Lord, you set it up.
You set it up and you drew them to yourself and then you so mercifully
laid out the gospel to them. that they needed to be concerned
not of their next meal. They needed to be concerned about
their souls. They needed to be concerned about
forgiveness. They needed to long for the mercy
of God. Father, if there are any in our
midst who do not know God’s mercy, Lord, take away the thoughts
of this next meal, these snacks, these earthly things and replace
them instead with a longing for spiritual food, a nourishment
which only Christ can provide. Lord, there are no others. What
a great encouragement that is to us. Those of us who have already
placed our faith in Christ, we know that it is in Christ and
in Him alone that sinners are saved. What
a joy in our hearts to know this, and we long that others would
come to know as well. We plead with you for grace at
work in their hearts. It’s in Jesus’ name that we ask. Amen. You take your bulletins
as we close this morning, and let’s stand and sing In Christ
Alone.