The Bread of Life (John 6:22-40)

We're going to be in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, as we continue to go through the book of John as a whole.

John 6 · chapter mention

And we're going to be reading verses 22 through 33.

And as we go through the Bible, we go through chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

So if it's your first time with us, we're right here in the middle of the book of John, in the middle of the chapter of chapter 6 here this morning.

So John chapter 6, verses 22 through 40.

John 6:22–40

If you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

And we do this out of respect that this is God's word.

So starting in chapter, I mean, uh in verse 22.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat.

They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone.

Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread, after the Lord had given thanks.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here?

Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Don't work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.

What can we do to perform the works of God?

They asked.

Jesus replied, This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he has sent.

What sign then are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?

They asked.

What are you going to perform?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Then they said, Sir, give us this bread always.

I am the bread of life, Jesus told them.

No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

But as I told you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.

Every one the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who 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.

This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of those he has given me, but should raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we always do, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, as Ben was just saying, that we get to hold it in our hands, that we have the literacy and the education to be able to come and read this on our own and have Bibles in our homes and Bibles in this church.

And we just thank you, God, that we have the privilege of reading and understanding your word.

And I just pray for a deeper level of understanding here this morning.

That you would teach us by the power of your Holy Spirit and that we would understand all that you're doing in this text and all that you want us to understand, all that you want to convict us in, and all the things that you want to encourage us in.

Lord, may you uh get a hold of each one of our hearts and have your way with us here this morning, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So today, as I was saying, is really a continuation, and it's a continuation of the theme of bread that we started to see last week as we started chapter 6, where Jesus fed the 5,000, he gave them this physical bread to eat, these barley loaves, to satisfy their physical hunger.

And so for this crowd that keeps following and finding Jesus, they show a great concern for physical things.

You know, Jesus physically heals the sick, and the the crowds start to accumulate and they start following him.

Jesus provides for them this physical food of the loaves and the fishes, and they then want to forcibly make him their king.

But today Jesus is going to shift their focus, or at least I should say, he's going to try to shift their focus from the physical to the spiritual.

He'll start to introduce this concept of him being the bread of life, which really we're going to talk about for the rest of chapter 6.

And he's going to talk about the sustenance that he is, that every single one of us needs spiritually.

And by the end of today, we're going to see that in our relationship with Jesus, there's really only one miracle.

There's really only one transaction, and there's really only one work that matters regarding the foundation of our faith in Jesus Christ.

So we're picking up this morning after Jesus sends his disciples off ahead in the boat across the Sea of Galilee or Tiberius to Capernaum.

We just saw that the storm comes up.

We saw that Jesus walked on the water, and then the boat miraculously appears on the other side of the sea.

And these next couple of verses are really a narrative explaining how the crowds go and they find Jesus again.

So it says in verse 21, or in verse 22, the next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat.

They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone.

So this crowd probably wakes up the next morning and they're trying to figure out where Jesus is.

Maybe because they're hungry for breakfast.

You know, they just got their free meal last night, and maybe that's part of their motivation.

Where is this guy?

I got hungry again.

They know that the disciples left by boat and that Jesus didn't go with them, but they can't find Jesus.

So they start to seek after them.

And many will find for the wrong reasons they're looking for Jesus.

Look at verse 23 with me.

Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

You know, it could be that these boats were out fishing the night before the storm came in, and instead of fighting the storm, they just pulled up to shore to just wait out the storm there.

Look at verse 24.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here?

You know, I can only imagine their confusion.

You know, this is really, it's not a ridiculous question that they're asking him.

The last thing they saw is Jesus sending his disciples off in the boat.

He didn't get in the boat, and then all of a sudden he's in Capernaum.

You know, they knew that he didn't have a boat of his own.

Walking on the shore would have been about six miles.

You know, that's a long way to walk in the middle of the night, especially if there's a storm going on.

So this crowd is kind of like they find Jesus in Capernaum and they're like, wait, where?

When?

How did you get over here?

But Jesus doesn't answer their when question.

Look at what he says in verse 26.

Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, you were looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

You know, I think the heart of Jesus' statement here is, if I didn't feed you last night, would you be looking for me this morning?

You know, if I just taught you the truth and then left, would you be in boats trying to find me right now?

You know, Jesus doesn't answer their why question.

Instead, he's helping them get to the heart of why they are following him in the first place.

They wanted their stomachs filled.

They wanted the miracles, but they weren't interested in the meaning behind the signs.

They weren't interested in his teaching.

They weren't interested in the truth that he was teaching them.

They wanted their stomachs filled.

They wanted the miracles.

And I think at this point we've defined this before, but we need to remember the difference between miracles and signs.

You know, miracles are something supernatural that happens, which Jesus did plenty of, but signs preach a sermon.

They have a deeper meaning.

They point to something that might not be evident on the surface level.

So Jesus says, You're looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

You know, these people were enthusiastic followers of Jesus.

But they weren't doing it for the right reasons.

You know, and I found when I've come across people like this that they can sometimes be the absolute hardest people to minister to.

I think in some cases, harder even than atheists.

Because they're so enthusiastic about a non-biblical Jesus.

And they're usually not interested in the real thing.

You know, like the people in the name it and claim it belief.

You know, the come to Jesus and He'll give you everything that you've ever wanted if you just have enough faith.

But they don't want the Jesus that allows you to come to the end of yourself and allows us to struggle in the middle of a storm, just like Jesus allowed his disciples to do the night before.

You know, you've probably heard the saying that God needs to be your master, not your master card.

And we can so easily make our relationship with God so transactional.

And about what we get out of it.

Even if we've been walking with the Lord for a long time, if we're not careful, we can slip into this attitude.

Where if we don't get what we think we deserve, we can start to question God and doubt not only him, but his motives as well.

Look back at verse 13 of chapter, I mean, verse 15 of chapter 6.

So same chapter, just up a little bit in verse 15.

I want us to look back there because it says, Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Why did they want to make him king?

Because he just performed a miracle and fed their bellies.

If we follow Jesus only when he performs miracles and feeds our bellies, we're not truly following Jesus, are we?

And the Lord does do miracles and he does provide for our physical needs.

And those can, those are great things.

And sometimes seeing God's miracles in our life can be a real faith booster for us.

But those things make a horrible foundation for our faith in Jesus Christ.

Because as soon as the miracles are not evident, as soon as we get a little bit hungry, we'll start to question if He is really God or if He really cares about us.

Just like the Israelites in the wilderness in their exodus from Egypt.

You know, think of all the miracles that they witnessed, this group that's going through the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt.

Think of all the plagues that they just saw and the protection from the plagues that God just provided.

The protection of the blood of the lamb that was put on the doorposts to protect their oldest sons.

The miracle of Pharaoh actually letting them go.

The miracle of the Egyptians actually giving them gifts as they leave.

They witness the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army.

They witness all of these miracles firsthand.

But as soon as they get thirsty, they start to grumble and they start to doubt.

And God miraculously provides water and Mara for them.

So surely after all these miracles and God's provision, they would never question God or lose their trust in Him again, right?

But then they get hungry and they start to grumble and question God again after seeing all of these miracles that they had just witnessed.

Yet God provides bread from heaven called manna for them.

And miracle after miracle of God's provision continues for 40 years for these people.

And for 40 years, the Israelites continue in this cycle of temporary obedience and being wowed by God, followed by doubt and grumbling.

And they just went through this cycle over and over again.

And I mention all this because our faith can't be placed on the next miraculous thing that we witness.

Our faith has to be based on the truth of Jesus Christ, the true and eternal bread from heaven.

Our faith needs to be based on one and only one miracle.

That Jesus resurrected from the grave.

That's the one miracle I was talking about in the beginning.

You know, our faith has to be grounded in truth and not what we get.

You know, it has to be grounded in the truth that God loved us so much, as we just say, that he gave his son to rescue us from our sin, to give us eternal life.

And there's only one transaction that matters in our relationship with God, and that is that Jesus paid for our sin.

He paid the debt that we had acquired.

The only transaction that we should build our faith on.

You know, we already have everything we need, and that is what Jesus is about to tell them.

Look at verse 27.

Don't work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.

So Jesus compares and contrasts the physical food and the spiritual food once again.

You know, physical food is what is needed for our physical sustenance here on earth, for our survival here on earth.

And I looked up the definition for sustenance in the English dictionary, and it was kind of comical because it says means of keeping the body and soul together.

Think about that.

That's what physical food is.

It's means of keeping the body and soul together.

If we starve, the flesh dies, but our spirit lives on, right?

And if we're in Christ, our spirit lives on with the Lord.

So think about it this way: physical food supports the spirit and the flesh existing together.

Spiritual food, as Jesus is talking about, supports our spirit and God's spirit existing together for all of eternity.

And that can only happen through Jesus, through us consuming the bread of life, as we'll see.

So I want to ask you this question.

In the end, what's more important?

Physical food or spiritual food?

You know, physical food helps us survive on this speck of time in the scope of all eternity that is life here on earth.

Spiritual food lasts forever.

It lasts for all of eternity.

So which one is more important?

It's the spiritual food, isn't it?

So Jesus identifies that these people are following him for temporary physical food that perishes.

And Jesus is saying, don't bother.

I have something so much greater, and it's me.

It's the one that God had placed his seal of approval on, which makes me think of his baptism, where God said, This is my son in whom I am well pleased.

And all of this crowd needs to do, all that they need to do is believe on him, to believe in Jesus.

Yet they would prefer more barley loaves daily, as we'll see, instead.

And we shouldn't look down on this crowd because we so often do the same thing in our own life, in our own walk, but we tend to justify it a little bit differently.

You know, I know that I need more of Jesus, but a million dollars would be a little bit more helpful right now than Jesus would.

And I know we would never say that, but if we're honest, I think we can go into that line of thinking.

Look at verse 28 with me.

What can we do to perform the works?

Notice that's plural, of God, they asked.

So the word works here is the same word, different form, that we saw in verse 27.

When Jesus says, Don't work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life.

So Jesus tells them, work, so they say, How do we perform works?

Plural.

And notice as we read verse 29 how Jesus is going to take it back to the singular again.

Verse 29.

Jesus replied, This is the work of God, the work that they must perform, that you believe in the one He has sent.

You know, I really believe they were looking for some more loss.

They were looking for a laundry list of things that they can do to earn their way closer to God, to gain this bread that Jesus is talking about.

So they asked for works, and Jesus tells them there is only one work they need to do for eternal life.

Believe Him.

Believe His words, believe His teaching, that He is God, that He is the Messiah, that He is the Savior in the only way to God the Father.

One work is required on our part, and that's belief.

Look at verse 30.

What sign then are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?

They asked.

What are you going to perform?

Yeah, we learn from the other gospels that in Capernaum some Jewish leaders had arrived from Jerusalem.

These Jewish leaders didn't witness the miracle from the night before, the loaves and the fishes, but surely they've heard about what Jesus had done the day before from this crowd that's all excited about Jesus multiplying the bread.

So this could be them saying, you know, we weren't there for the multiplication of the bread and the fish, so what are you going to perform now so that we can believe too?

And I think this is also the crowd asking Jesus, you know, so what's your next trick?

Or what's the next thing you're going to do to feed our bellies?

So look at verse 31.

They go on.

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

And that's from Psalm 105.40.

But didn't Jesus just give them a sign?

Didn't He just the night before perform the signs of the loaves and the fishes being multiplied?

This sounds.

Well, let me go back.

There's thousands and thousands of witnesses in this crowd that just saw this.

But yet they want to see more.

And these Jewish leaders that maybe only heard about it, they want to see more.

And so they say, What are you going to perform?

As if Jesus is a magician.

Like, oh, next trick, what are you going to do now?

But he tells them, you just need to believe in me.

And they say, What will you do to prove your words?

You know, and by the way, the Israelites in the wilderness, they got bread every day, Jesus.

You know, like, haha, what are you going to do for us?

You're going to provide daily, you know, physical bread for us too?

I mean, if you're really God, wouldn't you do that?

So it's like, okay, Jesus, do something else for us.

Feed our flesh.

You know, the enduring word commentary brings up a good point.

Which sign would attract a bigger crowd?

Say, in our instance, we put a sign on El Camino Real, just right outside the church here, that says free money and free food.

Or if we put a sign that said spiritual fulfillment and eternal life, how many people are gonna stop for that first sign?

Probably almost everybody that drives by, right?

How many are gonna stop for that second sign?

Of spiritual fulfillment and eternal life.

They'd just be like, another church, and they would just keep going.

The crowd wants stuff as if miracles and manna worked to build the faith of their ancestors in the wilderness.

And now God is giving them bread to eat from heaven.

Jesus the Messiah.

And their reaction is just like their ancestors.

You know, there truly is nothing new under the sun.

Look at verse 32.

Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

You know, manna would perish in one day.

They could collect enough for their daily bread, and if they tried to save some for the next day, it would rot overnight.

So they couldn't over-collect the manna.

Except on Friday.

They would collect enough for Saturday as well so that they wouldn't have to collect it on Saturday and do that type of work on the Sabbath.

And God provided that the extra they collected on Friday wouldn't rot on Friday night, but it would still be okay on Saturday.

I mean, talk about miraculous bread, right?

But Jesus is the miraculous bread from heaven that would meet their spiritual needs in that same way.

The one that we rely on daily to be our spiritual sustenance.

That's what how he should be looked at.

He's the bread of eternal life, and we can't live eternally without him.

Yet, like I mentioned, we can so easily fall into that.

What have you done for me lately, Jesus, mentality.

He goes on, look at verse 33.

For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 3.16.

For God loved the world in this way.

He gave, he sent his one and only Son from heaven, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

We can perish from a lack of bread.

And we can per can perish from a lack of the bread of God, the bread of eternal life.

So the crowd responds, verse 34.

Then they said, Sir, give us this bread always.

You know, I still think they're like, we're getting manna, free food always.

But Jesus responds, look at verse 35.

I am the bread of life, Jesus told him.

No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

So do you remember what Jesus told the woman at the well when we're going over chapter 4, verse 10?

He said, Whoever drinks the water that I give him will never get thirsty again.

And we know from chapter 7, the next chapter we're going to be covering, that this is a reference to the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to his followers after the ascension.

You know, Jesus has been patiently teaching whoever will listen to distinguish the physical from the spiritual.

Spiritually, Jesus is saying, you will never hunger and thirst again if you come to me.

I am the only one that can truly satisfy.

Because Jesus knows that idolatry and sin, it's like eating salty junk food.

It's like eating potato chips or those peanut butter-filled pretzels.

You know, or a really good trail mix.

You know, the Lay's potato chips used to have the slogan bet you can't just eat one, right?

You remember that?

It's the same with sin and idolatry.

You just want more and you want more.

And the more salt that you eat, the more you want to eat it, and the more thirsty you become, right?

But Jesus satisfies.

And I'm not going to compare him to Snickers.

I promise.

But he doesn't leave you feeling empty and depleted and then waiting for more.

Or what, you know, because then we're left wanting more of what allowed us to feel empty in the first place.

Like any addiction.

Like alcohol, like sexual addiction, drugs, caffeine, food addiction, whatever it might be, they satisfy in the moment.

But then you're left wanting more and more and more.

And if you don't satisfy that urge, then the withdrawals set in.

And then you're the furthest thing from satisfied, aren't you?

But the satisfaction that comes from Jesus is not like that.

The more of him that we consume, that we take in, the more satisfied we become.

And that is what he's trying to convey to this crowd that wants to feed their bellies.

Jesus goes on in verse 36.

But as I told you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will never cast out.

All they ever needed is right in front of them.

True contentment and satisfaction is within the grasp of this crowd.

And they just want the temporary.

And if they would simply come to Jesus, belief in him, he would never cast them out, he says.

You know, as a side note, we may look at verse 37 and ask, wait, is this teaching predestination?

And that God forces people to come to Jesus?

The Father gives people to Jesus, and then they come to him.

And the answer to is he teaching predestination or not is no, I really don't think so.

I think it's both there's a calling from the Lord, and there's a coming to Jesus on our part.

What was the only work that we're talking about that God requires for our eternal life?

Belief in Jesus.

God calls, but there's still something that we have to do.

There's one work on our part belief and trust and acceptance that Jesus is our Savior.

You see, there's God's part, and then there's ours, there's our part.

Look at verse 38.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

So Jesus is trying to get through to them that his words are not those of a self-righteous, self-seeking man, looking for a bigger following and trying to gain more influence.

This is Jesus saying, all that I'm doing is God the Father manifested in front of you.

Yet you want more and you want something different than all that you've ever needed.

Jesus continues in verse 39.

This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of those he has given me, but should raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life.

And I will raise him up on the last day.

Eternal life for all that believe in Jesus is God's will.

That at Jesus' return we will be resurrected from the dead, just like Jesus was into our resurrected eternal bodies.

If we see the Son and believe in him, it says in verse 40.

You know, going back again to Israel in the wilderness, Israel speaks against God and against Moses.

God sends these poisonous snakes.

People are dying.

The Israelites repent.

Moses intercedes for them.

And it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, make a snake image and mount it on a pole.

When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.

So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole.

Whenever someone was bitten and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.

And then here, Jesus says, Everyone who sees, everyone who beholds, who gazes upon the sun and believes in him will have eternal life.

Just as their ancestors looked to the bronze snake raised up on a pole to save them from the poisonous snakes, they need to look to Jesus, who would be raised up on a cross to save them from the poison of sin.

Jesus just told them, this is the work of God, that you believe in the one he has sent.

If you accept the words that he's speaking and look upon him and consume him as the bread of life, you will be satisfied.

You will be saved.

You will have eternal life.

This is what Jesus was offering to this crowd.

This is what Jesus is offering to us here today as well.

True spiritual satisfaction that we cannot find anywhere else.

Psalm 34, 8 says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.

How happy is the person who takes refuge in him.

You who are his holy ones, fear the Lord, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Like I said at the beginning, there is only one miracle we need.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There's only one transaction that we need.

Jesus paying the debt for sin that we acquired.

And there's only one work we need to do, and that's to believe in Jesus Christ.

This needs to be the truth, needs to be the foundation that we build our faith on.

Because miracles are soon forgotten.

Food perishes, but Jesus is eternal.

He's the cornerstone of our faith.

He is more than enough.

He's all that we need, and he's the only way to the Father.

And if you're here today and you have not accepted those truths, if you have not set to your foundation on Jesus Christ and the truths that He is preaching here today, I want to offer that to you today.

And all you need to do is believe.

That is the one work that God is calling us to in Jesus Christ, is to believe in him.

Believe the truth of this passage.

Accept the miracle of his death, burial, and resurrection.

And allow him to pay the debt that we have acquired in sin.

If you do that, you will be saved.

And you can do that in the quietness of your own seat.

You can do that when you get home.

You can let God work on you for the week and do it next week, whatever it might be, but allow him, allow those truths of Jesus Christ to sink into your heart.

And if you want to know more about that or you want to pray afterwards, please come up.

I'd love to do that with you and give you a little bit further instruction of how to take those first steps in following Jesus Christ.

Would you please pray with me?

Oh Lord, we thank you for your word.

It is so rich.

We thank you for the truths of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, for those of us that have been walking with you for a long time, help us to not slip into the belief that we need one more miracle to believe in you.

Or we need to do more works to grow closer to you.

Or we've become callous of the fact of the miracle that you died and rose again for us, Jesus.

Lord, help us to follow you with all of our heart, to depend on you for everything, and to live in the truths, Lord, as our foundations, Jesus as the cornerstone of which everything else in our life is built on.

Lord, you are so good.

Show us how to follow you more closely, how to abide in you more closely, how to cling to you for everything that we need.

Because, Jesus, you are everything that we need.

Lord, help us to not be in a transactional relationship with you, of just seeing what we can get from you and what that next great thing is, but to realize you're everything that we need.

And you're going to provide for all of our physical needs.

But we don't need to focus on that, Lord.

We just need to focus on clinging to you and following you with all of our heart.

And it wouldn't be through our own works, Lord, but it would be through a deeper dependence upon you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.