Jesus is ___, Part. 8: “The Bread of Life”

Good morning everyone. You can go ahead and turn your

Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6 · chapter mention

We're continuing our study in the Gospel of John to learn from

Scripture who Jesus is. And last week we saw how Jesus

is the judge of all for Easter Sunday.

And today we'll see how Jesus is the bread of life.

As you turn your Bibles to John chapter 6, I want to briefly

John 6 · chapter mention

test you on what your acronym knowledge.

Do you know what these 4 letters stand for?

It's an easy one. AYCE.

All right. Yeah, we know it for those who

know what they are, and they know it so well.

Love to eat and love to eat a lot.

And the thing our family loves, it's a favorite birthday spot

for us to choose. Whenever there's a birthday, all

you can eat. The good, great thing is that

there's so much food, so much varieties, and it's just

unending. You can eat your fill.

The bad thing is that you have obviously a limit, whether the

limit to your stomach or the limit to the time, you can't

take it home. And the worst thing about it is

you will be hungry again tomorrow.

No matter how much you ate in that hour and a half time limit

you have. You stuffed yourself full.

You will surely be hungry again tomorrow.

And that's how, if you ever thought about that, that's how

we were created by God. We were created by God with a

hunger, with this physical hunger, and to experience

physical satisfaction as well as physical strength and physical

life when we eat. Have you ever imagined God could

have made us like walking trees where we could do our own

photosynthesis, grab, take the energy from the sun and turn it

into sugar that we can use. But He created us with this

physical hunger. Also that we could understand

Jesus and what He taught as He taught the crowds that He is the

bread of life, eternal life. Or you can eat.

Buffets remind us that we can be full on this earth, quite full

to be exact, but never satisfied, for that fullness

will shortly pass. And this is true as long as we

seek satisfaction for our souls from anything that's on this

earth, anything temporary that we seek to be fully satisfied,

we will be found wanting and sorely disappointed.

Whether it's seeking to be satisfied in that new job or

that next vacation or that particular relationship, as we

seek temporary things to satisfy our souls, we will not be

satisfied. Jesus today talks about this in

John chapter 6, and it's what it's about.

John 6 · chapter mention

He reveals to us our hunger and true bread that can eternally

satisfy our souls and our desires.

And so consider that as we look through this fairly long passage

today, we'll be looking at this in three parts.

And if you're taking notes, these are the three points of

the sermon that follow the passage.

We'll see first how Jesus performed 2 more signs, then how

the people were still not satisfied.

Yet to Jesus, their unbelief was no surprise.

The Gospel of John is commonly called the Book of Signs.

He records 7 specific signs out of the many that Jesus

performed. We have looked at three of them

thus far, Turning the water into wine in chapter 2, healing the

nobleman's dying son who was in the next town over in John

John 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, as well as the paralytic man who was an invalid

for 48 years. These signs were meant to show

something beyond this miracle, which is why John calls them

signs. And today we'll look at two more

signs to see what we must learn from them and how they point to

Jesus. So first Jesus performed 2 more

signs. I'll be reading the passage

throughout the the sermon, so please follow along with me from

verse one. We'll look to verse 4.

After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of

Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was

following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on

the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain

and there he sat down with his disciples.

Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was at hand.

So sometime has has passed and during that time Jesus continued

to heal the sick. He had therefore because of

that, as a result, a growing reputation and a growing group

of followers, wherever Jesus went, there was a crowd

following him, even if it was up to the hilly countryside where

there was no food. So this leads us to the problem

at hand, the similar problem you all have after Sunday service

ends, where are we going to eat for them, For us, it's the

problem of having too many options for them.

They had no options at all for they were in the wilderness.

So lifting up verse. So what does Jesus do?

Verse five Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large

crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are

we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him, 200 dinarai worth of bread would not be

enough for each of them to get a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to

him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish,

but what are they for so many? Jesus here is testing his

disciples. Perhaps Jesus asked Philip

specifically because he would be familiar with that region.

They were near Philip's hometown.

So a test for Philip to consider all that he has seen about

Jesus, all that he has heard from Jesus teaching, all that he

believes about Jesus to be applied to a real life problem.

As one of the 12, Philip has gotten a front row seat to Jesus

and so he should know to rely on Jesus for help to provide.

Well, Philip responds, he doesn't even answer Jesus

question. All he needed to say was Jesus,

there's nothing here we need you to provide for us.

But instead Philip starts doing calculations as some of us would

when there's a problem, starts doing calculations.

And so Philip clearly did not pass the test.

He basically tells Jesus it's impossible to feed everyone

there. Even if I work for eight months,

everybody would get just a little bite.

Now Andrew, probably because he was from the same hometown as

Phillip, might have felt the need to contribute to this

problem solving situ scenario. So he maybe he started looking

around for someone who had brought food.

And there was a boy who had five barley loaves which were

probably and two fish, which was probably more a child portion of

bread and fish. So more like 5 small biscuits

and two pieces of fish. Still it was a hopelessly big

problem with very little resources.

So what does Jesus do? Look at verses 10 to 13.

Jesus said have the people sit down.

Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down about

5000 in number. Jesus then took the loaves and

when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who

were seated. So also the fish as much as they

wanted, and when they had eaten their fill, he told his

disciples, gather the leftover fragments that nothing may be

lost. So they gathered them up and

filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left

by those who had eaten. So here was a another miracle of

Jesus that nobody else could do. We don't know exactly how the

food was multiplied, but Jesus gave thanks and he just began to

distribute bread and fish to the crowd of 5000.

Maybe even more if we're not counting just the men.

Philip's suggestion would have given everyone a small bite.

That was his best answer. Would have taken maybe 8 months

to a year. But here Jesus immediately were

able to feed this crowd until they were satisfied.

It was a bread and fish, all you can eat in the wilderness and

somehow there were 12 baskets full of leftovers.

Jesus specifically told the 12 to go save the leftovers.

My wife needs to look at this passage carefully.

This is why we don't throw out leftovers in our home.

They had more leftovers than what they started off with. 12

baskets full of food after everyone ate to their full.

That was the miracle. Now as a sign, what is it

pointing to? What is the meaning of this sign

and did the people get it? Sadly, no.

See how the people respond in verse 14.

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this

is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.

Remember back in verse four it was near the Passover feast.

Passover was the Jewish celebration where Israel

remembered how God saved them from Egypt.

God raised up a mighty prophet, Moses, to lead them out.

He he performed the the plagues on Egypt, the 10 plagues and he

led them through, let them through the Red Sea on dry land

and LED them in the wilderness where God provided Israel bread

from heaven. And while they were remembering

how God saved them from Egypt, here Jesus was proving by

experience that he could do the same.

After the people experienced the miracle feast, they saw

something in Jesus. Now they saw Jesus as fulfilling

the prediction, the the the prophecy that a prophet like

Moses would come. He was promised back in

Deuteronomy chapter 18. And while it is true that Jesus

Deuteronomy 18 · chapter mention

fulfilled the role of a prophet, he came delivering messages from

God, teaching people. He lived in the pattern of the

prophets performing various miracles to authenticate the

messages from God. But Jesus is much more than a

prophet. He is much more than a miracle

worker who provides miraculously for people.

And we get the sense that the people are really hyped up here

about Jesus, but in all the wrong ways.

You see that in verse 15. Perceiving then that they were

about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus

withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

They wanted a prophet like Moses, but also a king like King

David who fought their battles victoriously against their

enemies. So they wanted and come to, they

wanted to take him, Jesus by force, make him king, meaning

they wanted another political hero, someone, someone of a

revolutionary who could free them from the Roman rule and

authorities that were over them during this time.

But that's clearly not what Jesus came to do, because

Jesus's Kingdom, as he would say later, as he drew near to his

death, he would say his Kingdom is not of this world.

He would not establish a Kingdom by overpowering other nations

with swords and Spears, but rather Jesus would humble

himself, receive a spear to his side, nails to his hands, thorns

upon his brow as he hung on the cross.

That's how he was going to usher in his Kingdom.

Jesus was not concerned with political situations, but rather

the conditions, the spiritual condition of people's hearts.

This makes him a far better king for us rather than the kind of

king these people here wanted him to be.

But because they did not submit to Jesus as he revealed himself,

as he was revealing himself. We know throughout that as we've

been going through this series, who Jesus is.

The people there heard and witnessed that for themselves.

But they we did not submit to who Jesus was, his identity that

he proclaimed, and so they missed out on knowing who Jesus

really is. It's tempting to make such a

mistake even today, when we insist Jesus to be the kind of

king that we want him to be. When we insist that Jesus should

be doing the things we want him to do for us.

But if we don't learn to see Jesus as who He says He is from

His Word, no matter how much we save, we follow Jesus, no matter

how much we consider ourselves to be Christian, we have it on

our name card, we will still completely miss out on who Jesus

is and therefore on what Jesus offers to us.

Therefore, Jesus here does not allow the crowds to define his

identity or his work or his purpose.

Jesus will reveal himself on his own terms.

We see that in verses 16 to 19. When evening came, His disciples

went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea

to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had

not yet come to them. The sea became rough because the

strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about 3 or 4

miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the

boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I do

not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him

into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to

which they were going. So imagine this picture of the

situation here. You know these men who became

Jesus 12 his closest disciples. They were fishermen in their

previous life. They were in their neighborhood

waters. They knew the, the, the, the

geography, the the waters. But it was dark and they were

struggling. Storm and strong winds were

blowing against them. And then suddenly they see Jesus

coming near to them, walking on the water.

Let's not try to make this any more easy to believe.

They were not on the edge of shore, Jesus on a shallow part

of the of the sea where he was actually walking on the sand.

But it looked like he was walking order.

No, there were somewhere in the middle, rowing miles into the

Red Sea, trying to cross. Could not.

And they see Jesus walking toward them like it's a stroll

in the park. So they're, they're afraid their

their fears, not because of the, the wind or the OR the storm,

but because of seeing something they they have never seen

before. A man walking on water, The

unknown when it is coming toward you, fills people with fear.

But Jesus calls out to them, do not be afraid.

He relieves their fears by getting into the boat with him,

and it says they were glad to take him into the boat.

Reminds me of that children's song that goes with Jesus in the

boat. We can smile in the storm.

That's what these disciples are surely doing.

And so what's the point of these signs as Jesus reveals himself

on his own terms? These signs show that Jesus is

God. These signs show that Jesus is

God. These so-called laws of nature

that bind everyone else. Here those laws actually bend to

the Creator who created all things.

Atoms and molecules and physics function the same way for

everyone else, but somehow they give way to Jesus.

Jesus multiplied fish and bread without ingredients, without a

factory production line. Jesus walked on water like we

walked into this room. There is no one like Jesus.

The conclusion must be that Jesus is God, for that's what

the signs point to. But though Jesus is infinitely

greater than us, Jesus chooses to be intimately with us.

He chose to sit down with the people to feed them.

He chose to get into the boat with his disciples to be with

them, to calm and relieve their fears.

Jesus enters in and he is with us in the storms of life,

whether they're storms of personal conflicts, financial

struggles, physical illness, loss, morning weeping friends,

as you face your storms, remember Jesus words.

It is I do not be afraid. And we know He is with us so

intimately ultimately because he suffered greatly and he suffered

so for us. It was not for his own sins he

suffered because he never sinned, but because of our sins.

He chose to suffer as he as he came to us fully God, fully man.

He chose to experience the worst of of the human experience,

betrayal, pain, humiliation, suffering.

And compared to many of our lives today, he's suffered more.

He's tasted suffering more than we have ever tasted in our

entire lives. He died for our sins so that we

could be in a restored relationship with God, restored

to that intimacy with our Heavenly Father.

Because He is fully God and fully man, Jesus is able to

empathize with our weaknesses. Hebrews, as it says in Hebrews

4, He who is infinitely greater than us is intimately with us.

This is what we are to understand of God as He reveals

Himself. These were the meaning of the

two signs He just performed to show people who He is.

But we see next that the people were still not satisfied.

Read verses 22 to 25. 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 Tiberius 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? We see this crowd trying really

hard to figure out where Jesus was, but not as much effort in

figuring out who Jesus was. They were following him first to

the east side, back to the West side of the sea.

Finally they started to go to Capernaum because that's where

Jesus stayed during his time of ministry.

They found him and they just wanted to know when they got he

got there. Well, Jesus doesn't answer that

question because it's of no importance.

Rather, he cuts to the real urgent matter at hand, to the

real reason why they're looking for Jesus.

Jesus says in verse 26. 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. This was what's going on in

their hearts. The crowds missed the point of

the signs. They did not see what the signs

signified. They had their bellies full from

yesterday's lunch and all they wanted now was breakfast.

They did see Jesus as a Son of God, but they did see, they see

him. They saw him come in the flesh,

but he was more of like a celebrity chef who gave out free

meals. So Jesus challenged them, not

with a test of action like he did with Philip, but with a

listening test because he would tell them very clearly what they

needed. Verse 27 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 the Father, God the Father, has set his zeal.

The best meal that you have ever had may have been feeling

delicious, satisfying, but it was only for a moment.

It perishes, it does not last. You get hungry again.

So they should not keep working for what is at best temporary.

The challenge remains for us as well.

Are you working for the food that perishes?

Are you working for food that perishes?

What do you give your best hours to your best efforts?

Is it for that salary that you chase after?

Is it a luxurious, comfortable life?

Is it that relationship just a nice marriage, nice spouse,

maybe some nice kids with a nice house?

Those are not bad things in and of themselves, but they could be

if your heart is set on working for food that perishes.

What will happen one day when you lose that job or your

ability to work? When you get sick or your spouse

passes away, will you continue to follow Jesus?

Or were you following Him like these crowds were following Him

just for the things you could get from Him?

We should check our hearts now. Are you working for food that

perishes? Because if you are, you will

never be satisfied. Or instead rather, are you

working for the food that endures to eternal life?

Well, these crowds don't seem to be getting it.

See verse 28. 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, rather than having faith in Jesus to

receive the eternal food of eternal life that Jesus is

willing to give. As he said clearly here, if they

were listening carefully, all their attention is in their own

abilities to achieve the works of God.

Do you see that? Do you catch that in their

question? What must we do to be doing the

works of God as if you could be doing the works of God?

This is a hindrance for people. It comes as a common temptation

for Christians as well to rely on our own strength for our own

salvation. Like them, we overlook how the

Son of Man gives by grace when we believe by faith, because no

matter how hard we try or how great our achievements we

consider them to be, eternal life is a gift of grace, not a

payment for our efforts after giving such an invitation to

come freely, eat of, and receive eternal things without paying a

price. See how they responded in verses

30 to 34. 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 it my Father gives you the true bread from

heaven. What a tragedy in verse 30.

The sign that they had just seen the day before was not good

enough. It was not good enough for them

to believe in Jesus. And to such people who come with

such demands, nothing is actually going to be good

enough. We read earlier in our service

from Psalm 78, it's it's from a, it's recalling a time hundreds

of years earlier when Israel, when, when God provided Israel

daily the provision of bread from heaven, they called it mana

and they expected the prophet like Moses to come and do the

same sign again. So in other words, they were

saying, yes, Jesus, you might have fed us yesterday, but do

you remember what happened in Israel, in the wilderness?

They were fed every day for 40 years.

So now feed us again today, feed us again tomorrow and for the

days to come. Then we will believe in you.

They're stuck on physical bread, missing the spiritual lesson

that Jesus gives from physical realities.

Just like when Jesus told Nicodemus to be he needed to be

born again. Just like when Jesus offered

living water to the Samaritan woman, they're stuck on the

physical object, bread. So Jesus corrects them here.

Yes, Moses indeed was a great prophet from the Lord, but it

was not him who gave the bread. God gave it to them.

Just like how God provided them for them yesterday,

miraculously. Hint, hint.

They were to make the connection, but still nothing.

See the myths in verses 33 and 34.

Jesus said for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world. The bread of life is he who

comes out from heaven and and deeper than our need for

physical food and water. But like them, we can be so

easily distracted by our physical needs that we can

ignore, reject, even forget our spiritual need.

Our spiritual need to know God, to be in a relationship with

Him, and to be saved from our sins because our sins is what's

hindering us. It created this chasm that we

cannot cross to be with God. That's the reason why because we

could never reach up to heaven and attain heaven on our own

terms, Jesus had to come down from heaven to us because we

need to be saved from our sins. Sin is our rebellion against

God. It is our rejection of God.

Sin is how we somehow think that we have enough bargaining power

with God that if I do this for God, must be good enough for God

to do that for me. That is no intimate

relationship. It is a business transaction.

It is arrogance. It is a proud attitude before a

God that that only makes our sinful condition worse.

Thinking that somehow we can save ourselves, earning our way

because blinded by our sins, we think we need Our Daily Bread

more than we need God to forgive us.

We are more aware, more deeply aware of our physical, tangible

needs of food, water, clothing, shelter, relationships with

people, job, livelihood. We're aware of these things more

than our need for God and for the forgiveness of our sins.

But our eternal desire, it cannot be satisfied with

physical things like money, fame, or pleasure.

We need Jesus, who is the bread of God, who has come down from

heaven to give life to the world.

And without Jesus we will never be satisfied.

Jesus now makes his spiritual truth even more clear, even

clearer. To help them understand, he

says, starting verse 35, 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.

If you're not a Christian and you're with us here today, we're

glad that you're here. We want you to make sure you

look at verse 35 carefully and understand what it means to

follow Jesus, what it looks like to become a Christian.

It means that you are leaving behind dry, crusty old bread

crumbs from old bread of your old life, and you come to the

glorious banquets, all satisfying, fulfilling banquet

of Jesus Christ in new eternal life, because Jesus satisfies

alone. He alone satisfies our souls

hunger. I hope you see that it's clear.

Whoever comes is whoever believes.

This is what faith in Jesus looks like.

It's not just a simple yes to when someone asks you if you're

a Christian. It's much more than that.

It involves directing your mind, your thoughts, your heart, your

desires. Directing them to Jesus, Saying

to Jesus you ultimately need him more than anything else in this

world. Believing that Jesus alone

satisfies you more in real ways, in eternal ways that nothing

else can. It means that we don't go

looking for other sources to satisfy our souls because we

believe there is nothing else and no one else that can satisfy

us like the bread of life does. If you're not a Christian, we

pray that you will consider what you have now in your old life,

in your current life, in this way, in the old way of life, and

and consider what Jesus offers to you to see that it is far

better than anything else in the world where you don't have to

work for this bread because Jesus has done that work for you

on the cross by dying for your sins.

He simply invites you to come and feast.

What have you been working for? If it's not for knowing and

loving Jesus, it will not work out well for you in the end.

May today be the day of salvation as you come to Jesus

and believe and be satisfied in him.

We see also that salvation is a work of God.

It's a work of God's grace. But those at whose that's being

offered to them. But those who are still not

satisfied still did not believe. Yet to Jesus their unbelief was

no surprise. Let's see more what that means.

In verses 36 to 40, Jesus responds.

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 will never, 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. Jesus here describes his mission

to save those who he whom he came to save.

So if the crowd saw Jesus and his miraculous lines but did not

come to faith, doesn't that mean his mission is in some way a

failure? And some people might ask that

if that was his mission, is in his mission some way, Didn't he

fail in this because people did not believe?

And was Jesus discouraged by their unbelief?

The answer is clear in 37. However, many people do not

believe God's saving purposes cannot be frustrated.

Jesus's confidence here is is not resting in the positive

response of people, but his confidence is in the Father who

will bring, who will accomplish, who will bring to pass

everything that the Father wills.

We see in verse 37, as we see this clearly in verse 37, all

that the Father gives me will come to me.

It's the language of predestination.

According to this verse, we see that there are those whom the

Father has given to the Son for salvation.

This is the doctrine of election.

Simply that God is the one who ultimately determines who will

be saved in Jesus Christ. It is God who ultimately

determines that He has decided it from eternity past before the

foundations of the world were set.

And so to be saved means God must choose you.

God must call you for you to come and to believe.

God is the one who chooses that. See that in verse 37 connecting

that to verse 35 for us to come and believe the spiritual

reality here that we see and from Jesus teaching and from

Scripture is that God is the captain of our souls.

God decides our salvation and this doctrine of election is in

no way meant to discourage us in our faith because as we come to

Jesus, we share in his confidence in the Father.

It is meant for encouragement. Jesus here is assuring those who

come to him with the warmest a welcome.

Whoever God has chosen, he or she will come to Jesus and Jesus

will never cast them out. Even if you are a great Sinner,

even if you are a heart haunted Sinner, even if you have a

terrible past, and even if you bring nothing good with you.

Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

To add to that more encouragement in 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. 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. Jesus will not lose.

This adds to our encouragement. He will not lose what the Father

has given him to save the souls that he has saved, purchasing

them by paying off our debt of sin.

He will not lose them, not a single one.

And as he emphasizes that, he will repeat that he will raise

that person up, that soul up on the last day.

It's meaning means that we can, those who are in Christ, those

who he chooses to God has chosen to save, that we will stand on

that day of judgement, not by our own merit, for which we will

be punished for an eternity in hell, but we will stand in

judgement wearing the righteousness of Christ that we

put on by faith. This is the will of the Father.

Is there anything more certain, more sure, more unshakable than

the will of God who rules and reigns over all?

That is how sure we can be of our salvation.

So come as you are, with your guilt, with all of your shame,

with all of your sin, with all of your past, you come as He has

called you, and as you come, He will never cast you out.

There is no sin. He will not forgive if you come

to Him. Children, I want to make this

exceptionally clear for the teens here.

You must come to Jesus, not just come to church services.

You must come to Jesus. You cannot borrow or claim the

faith of your parents. You must come to Jesus.

As you hear His word respond, respond with trust and

dependence upon Jesus your Savior.

So here was Jesus teaching them, explaining the mysteries of God

to them after demonstrating the power of God before them.

How about their response now? Unbelief verses 41 to 42.

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread

that came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus

the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I have come down from heaven?

Now we can't blame them, can we? If a man in your neighborhood

that you knew growing up began to declare himself as God, we

might all be soon calling the police on this man.

Jesus in their eyes was too human for them to believe that

he came from heaven. This corrects any wrong teaching

that Jesus would just came as a spirit.

He was just like a image or a phantom.

No, he was so human that people couldn't get over that fact.

And this still is a reason why people choose not to believe

today, because they think Jesus was just another nice person,

just another good teacher, just another social worker, like any

other nice, good, kind person we know.

But we must come to grips what Jesus is actually saying that he

is totally human. He has he he is like us, but he

has come from heaven means meaning he's also totally God.

They thought Jesus had normal human parents like the rest of

us. They just didn't know and

understand that his father was God the Father in heaven.

And so he continues in these passages, if you're counting

seven times, how he says he has come down from heaven, He is the

bread of life, of eternal life that has come down from heaven.

He has come down from heaven over and over again.

Verse 43, Jesus, answer them, do not grumble among yourselves,

because that's all that they were doing.

Verse 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me

draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

So Jesus, humanity was not the only reason for unbelief for

these people. Another reason we see here is

their depravity. It's in verse 44 and we can

compare it to verse 37. That same.

It's from there as we compare it to verse 37, the same truth in

verse 44, but in verse 37, in verse 37, it's stated

positively, right? All that the Father gives me

will come to me. But in verse 44 it stated

negatively, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him.

No one is able to. No one has the ability to

because in our natural condition, our starting point is

not that we have a little desire for God and that we just need a

little bit more of a spiritual help, a little bit of a boost

from God, a little bit of a recalibration, a few degrees to

get us on the right path to God and to our salvation.

But that's not what Jesus teaches.

He highlights that we are unable to come to God entirely.

Catechisms of all that highlight this that we by nature are prone

to hate God and neighbor and that we cannot make payment for

our sins by ourselves. And so instead we increase our

we daily increase our debt that we have with God.

So here are the spiritual truths that we ourselves, we are held

responsible by God to come to Jesus and believe in him.

We are the ones at fault if we don't do that because we are the

ones in sin, we are the ones in need, we are the ones that are

blind, and we are the ones that are spiritually dead.

Yet we also acknowledge that we cannot come to the Father unless

we cannot come to Jesus unless the Father draws us to Him.

And so, in order to believe the doctrine of election, we must

absolutely be humble and honest in our ability to come to God

and to believe in Him. Left to ourselves in our own own

efforts, we would never be able to do this.

We ought to confess that even the greatest efforts of

godliness are still like filthy rags before our holy God.

No matter how much we want to get some of the credit for our

salvation, we cannot. We must not.

And rather, as we look at verse at these verses 3744 that that

speak to us the the the the mysteries of God and our

salvation. We must be moved to worship that

those who were saved were chosen for no reason in ourselves, but

purely by the grace and mercy and love of God.

We sang this in our in the in the song today.

Were you to count my sinful ways, how could I come before

your throne? Yet full forgiveness meets my

gaze. I stand redeemed by grace alone.

It is by grace alone we have been saved because God drew us

in. How did He do that?

God drew us in by His Word. Read verse 45 to 48.

It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by

God. Everyone who has heard and

learned from the Father comes to me.

Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from

God. He has seen the Father.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal

life. I am the bread of life.

The Father draws us in by the truth of His Word, His Word that

is so good, so true, it cuts deep into our hearts, yet

comforts us with the gentlest of love and mercies.

So even as you hear hard teachings of Jesus today, if

your heart is not resisting, but rather you feel like your heart

is melting, you know that you are safe in the hands of a

sovereign God. His drawing people is powerful,

and He is drawing you in by His Word to come to Jesus yet again.

His work in you is secure to save you, to sanctify you, to

give you eternal life. But for those who remain in

unbelief, there is a seriously scary end of eternal death.

We see that in verses 49 to 51. Your father ate the manna in the

wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes

down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I will give him for the life of the world is

my flesh. If you remain in unbelief today,

you have nothing of assurance. You have nothing to hold onto.

You will face Jesus at the end of your life, not as your

Savior, but as your Judge, and you will not be able to stand

under the crushing weight of God's wrath that you rightly

deserve for your many sins, even if just for one sin.

Adam was cast out of God's presence in the Garden of Eden.

How much more do we deserve to be cast out from God for our

many sins? If you remain an unbelief, you

have no hope. There is no other hope other

than to look to Jesus. But again, the good news is, if

you feel the weight of that panic, of that unsettling

feeling in your soul as you realize what will happen to you

when you stand before God, that is still a good sign to praise

God for. Because as you're hearing His

words, He is, He is drawing you. He is calling you to turn away

from your sins and come to Jesus in faith.

Do so today as God draws us. We can overcome this unbelief,

this sin that keeps us from God, whether it's Jesus's humanity or

depravity. We can overcome as God draws us

because His Word is powerful and effective even when we are

offended by God's Word, even if we are offended by God's word.

See this in verse 52 onward. The Jews then disputed among

themselves, saying, how can this man give us this 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 you.

Whoever feeds on 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.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and

I in Him as a Father living Father sent me, and I live

because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, He also

will live because of me. This is the bread that came down

from heaven, not like the bread of the bread the fathers ate and

died. Whoever feeds on this bread will

live forever. Jesus said these things in the

synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.

Let's make sure we follow the logic of Jesus teaching here.

In summary, he taught that God will give you true bread.

He offers true bread from heaven.

And then he said I am that bread come from heaven.

And then he says the bread is his flesh.

And then finally he says, you must eat my flesh, and on top of

that, drink my blood. We can understand their

unsettled confusion from the provocative language.

It's it might even feel disgusting.

Yes, if your mind is set on the physical realm, it might even

sound like Jesus is promoting cannibalism in that way.

It felt gross and gory and wrong all all the much more because

for the Jews, blood was a sacred thing.

God forbade them to eat the blood several times.

He gives that command throughout the Old Testament.

But what they needed to understand was that Jesus was

continuing to describe using physical objects, describing

what faith looked like a spiritual reality.

Having faith again is not just agreeing with Jesus just to say

yes to the yes or no questions about Jesus.

Faith is about coming into relationship with him with a

desire to know him and love him. And that desire continues to

grow and grow and over over shadow any other desire that you

may have. Faith here is also like

spiritually eating and drinking, personally taking and embracing

Jesus and His words into our very being.

It's believing that man does not live by bread alone, but man

lives on the very words that come from the mouth of God.

That's what faith here is like. So that as Jesus, as we come to

him, he, we abide in him. But Jesus also abides in us.

That's what he says in verse 36. Wherever feeds on my flesh and

drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

It's that kind of deep intimate relationship that we have as we

abide in Christ and he in us. We have to to understand that

this is what faith is really like, to say that we have faith

in Christ. Some people reading this

passage, they claim that this teaching is about taking

communion and then they wrongly teach that taking communion

today will save you from your sins.

That's not true. Nothing, again, nothing we do

can save us, for it is God's will and work to save.

As we have seen earlier, and in the response to God drawing us

by His word, we believe and receive by faith our salvation.

The whole of our salvation from start to finish is a gift of

God, the grace of God. And we will say that over and

over again because we're prone to forget.

While here it might sound like communion if you look carefully

at what Jesus is saying. It's not directly teaching about

communion, obviously, because the Last Supper of Jesus did not

happen yet. But here it does reveal the true

meaning of the Lord's Supper clearly, that Jesus would indeed

give up his body. He would indeed pour out his

blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

He who lived the perfect life, being fully God and fully man,

who did not deserve to die, yet He chose to die the death we

deserved, all for us in our place.

Communion indeed points to what Jesus has accomplished in his

body on the tree. It does point to the true

meaning of the Lord's Supper, clearly.

But it's for us to see Jesus's work again on the cross, and

with it, another invitation of Jesus in verse 58.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

They just need to look to Jesus and believe, and all that Jesus

promises them would be theirs. But even for Jesus disciples who

once had decided to follow Jesus, this was hard to accept.

Let's read verses 60 to 66. When many of his disciples heard

it, they said this is a hard saying.

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in Himself

that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to

them, Do you take offence at this?

Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he

was before? It is a spirit who gives life.

The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to

you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do

not believe. For Jesus knew from the

beginning who those were who did not believe Him, who did not

believe, and who it was who would betray Him.

And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me

unless it's granted Him by the Father.

After this, many of his disciples turned back and no

longer walked with him. Many of even own disciples found

what Jesus was teaching to be a hard saying, perhaps hard to

understand, but even more so hard to accept.

Who can accept a teaching like this?

But the hardness was in their hearts and not in Jesus

teaching. They had their own ideas about

the way to God and they're not going to be convinced out of it.

And so it was offensive to them. The word in the original words

is it's hard to describe, but in a way it's it can understand it

as scandalously offensive. But if this was offensive and

scandalous, the cross would be even more scandalous and

offensive. This is what he's referring to

when he says when in verse 62. What if you were to see the Son

of Man ascending to where he was before the scandalous thing of

the cross to accept that Jesus to to accept that we are in

sinners, that we are sinners in need of great help.

We cannot help ourselves that Jesus, we needed Jesus to come

and die for us. And then he would rise again on

the third day from the dead ascending into heaven.

All of that would be preposterous to them.

But Jesus continues to say in verse 63, these are the words he

says these words that I've spoken to you are spirit and

life Again, Jesus inviting them that what he has spoken has the

power, though his words have power to give eternal life to

forgive sins. Yet many were turning their

back, no longer walking with him.

Let's look at the last final verses starting in 67.

So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well?

Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of life, and we have believed and come to

know that you are the Holy One of God.

Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you the 12 and yet one of

you is the devil. He spoke of Judas the son of

Simon Iscariot, for he one of the 12 was going to betray him.

What Jesus is doing here is not only pointing to how he would

suffer and die, but how difficult it will be for them to

continue following Jesus. Many might get hyped up about

him, excited about what Jesus could offer to them.

But when they come to the heart to accept sayings of Jesus that

are offensive to them that declare there are that that that

we are sinners depraved, unable to save ourselves, that we have

to come and and eat of Jesus and to trust in him alone.

And these miraculous things that Jesus said on the cross and at

the empty tomb and at his at his ascension.

He was reminding his disciples, challenging them.

It will be difficult to follow, especially when you see many

others no longer walking with him, but to then, but even then,

even when we see those who have profess faith, those whom we

look up to walk away from Jesus, what will we do?

Will we, will we try to calculate, minimize who Jesus

is, to make sense of him, or really humble ourselves at his

word? To say Jesus, you truly have the

words of life. To whom shall we go?

Will we sound and act like the crowds, challenge Jesus,

demanding of him? Or we speak with the words of of

Simon Peter, words of worship, humility, surrender?

What will you say? How will you respond to Jesus in

this world where there's many things competing for our souls

to try to satisfy us, to offer full satisfaction, will return

to Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life, who gives eternal

life. Look carefully at His signs,

look carefully to His Word, and be deeply encouraged that His

Word is able to draw us in so that we may come, turn from our

sins and believe in Jesus Christ so that we too may feast and

dine with Him forever. How will you respond?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for the words of eternal life that you have made available to

us. You have preserved for us the

words of Jesus Christ, words that He spoke that were true

then and still remain true today.

Will you help us to be? More and more satisfied in you

alone may our desire for the things of this world be

swallowed up where we see it rightly in its place, where none

of these things of this world should be central in our lives,

but rightful in its rightful place.

Be used for the glory of God. You should be central, Lord.

You should be our satisfaction, so would you satisfy our souls,

perhaps for the first time, for those who are here who do not,

who have not believed before, and satisfy our souls yet again

with joy and pleasures forevermore that you provide

from knowing you and trusting in you.

We long this for ourselves and for more people to come and know

and believe in you. Jesus, the bread of Life, who

has come into the world to give eternal life, who will not lose

anyone that the Father has given to him.

He will be deeply encouraged by your by your word, and then

encouraged to go out, live it and share it all for your glory.

We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

Let's take a moment now to personally reflect on God's word

and that was preached to us. Take a moment to do so before we

close out in prayer in in song and prayer together.