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John 6:30-59 Bread 4.28.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, let's get to God's word, shall we? In John chapter 6, we're in a series called The Hard Sayings of Jesus. Sayings which are hard to understand, like whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. That's tough. Hard to apply. Don't be anxious about your life. Or, as was the case last week, hard to receive. Neither do I condemn you. But this morning's saying kind of bounces between all three. Scripture says that Jesus, having compassion on the crowds,
• 0:32
  fed those crowds miraculously by the thousands. Using only a few fish and loaves, he multiplied enough food for all to eat their fill and with leftovers. And when the people saw these miraculous deeds, they understood who he was and actually tried to force him to become their king. If you guys have your Bibles, open to John chapter 6. If you look at verse 14.
• 0:58
  following that miraculous feeding it says when the people saw the sign that he had done they said this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world they're quoting their deuteronomy 18 where moses said another prophet will come like me but he'd even greater power expect this prophet to come they understood who he was this is the prophet they know verse 15 says perceiving
• 1:25
  that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. You say, well, wait a minute. That seems kind of counterintuitive. Didn't Jesus come to be king? What was so bad about their desire? They understood exactly who he was. This is the prophet. Let's make him king. Seems like a really good prayer request. Why would God not?
• 1:56
  grant that prayer request. We sing about God's kingdom come. We sing about Lord be king of my heart. We sing about these things. Why would he say no to that? Why would the Lord withdraw? Well, the answer is he withdrew because he knew that he was sent to be a different kind of king, a king of a spiritual kingdom rather than a political one, a king with a heavenly army rather than a physical one.
• 2:28
  Jesus knew that if he became the kind of king they wanted, he could never give humanity what we really needed. For Jesus, who had granted their request to become their king, would have been to grant too little. They were actually asking him to diminish his purpose, to diminish his ministry, to diminish his kingdom by becoming the king of a much smaller kingdom.
• 2:59
  And I think that we often do the same thing. We don't think big enough. We're not praying big enough. We're not asking Christ for enough when it comes to his kingdom and his glory. During staff lunch this last Wednesday, every Wednesday, the staff goes to lunch together. And the purpose of that is just to enjoy time with one another. We try not to talk about work things.
• 3:33
  We just laugh and talk and pray together and eat and enjoy one another's company one time a week on Wednesdays. And this last staff lunch, we were talking about each of our individual affinities toward or away from roller coasters. And some on our staff apparently enjoy compulsory vomiting.
• 3:56
  I, however, do not. I have no affection at all for roller coasters. I just don't enjoy them. Every time I ride them, I get sick. And it caused me to think about the last time I rode one, and not one of the old school kind of vintage roller coasters, the ones made out of wood, which rattle your fillings out, right? But the new ones, you know, that twist you and throw you and spin you and do all of these crazy things. And I did ride on one of those years ago with my friends at an amusement park nearby our hometown.
• 4:25
  The name of the roller coaster was called Deja Vu. And I suppose I should have figured out from the name what I should have expected, but I did not. The line was very short and for good reason. And so I didn't have time really to prepare. I wasn't really even paying attention, to be honest with you. I'm on this ride before I even knew what was going on. You know, and roller coasters are a relatively simple design. Typically, you know, they throw you around and spin you and do whatever they're going to do. But they always go in a loop, you know.
• 4:53
  You finish back where you started. But this particular one was called deja vu, okay? And so it threw us up this hill, just like you'd expect. And we came down the other side of said hill and we did our loops and we did all of these things. But rather than ending where we started, we actually ended up out in the middle of this field, pointed straight up in the air to a dead end. We went all the way up this tower. It grabbed us again and began hauling us to the top of this tower.
• 5:24
  only very shortly to find out to my chagrin that it was going to release us and we were going to do the entire thing again, but this time backward. We went all the way around and came back to the start backward. By the end, you know, you've got this bar thing. You remember when seatbelts, roller coasters just used to have a seatbelt, right?
• 5:46
  That was it. Click and you're done. Now, I mean, there's like snapping you in and you've got all these harnesses and things and they just know they're going to launch you out in the middle of space, you know? And so I pull the bar down and it's got these like steel handles in front of me. I pull this thing down over my head and you guys, the absolute vice grip I had on those handlebars, I just could not wait.
• 6:11
  to get off of that ride. I was white knuckled. I mean, there was no blood left in my hands and I was just squeezing that thing for dear life. I wonder sometimes if there aren't areas in our lives that we have an absolute death Kung Fu grip on, that we're just white knuckled. We have no intention of letting go. There are some things in our lives where we say, you know what, Jesus, we want you to be king.
• 6:42
  Of almost everything. But these two, three things, I'm just, I'm not letting go of. These are mine and I have got the death grip, white knuckled grip on. You can't have them. If there is anything in my life that I have an absolute death grip on at times, I think it's my version of who I think God should be. It's my version.
• 7:12
  of what I think God should do. It's my version of how he should act, of what he should provide for me. It's my version of his kingdom. I have trouble accepting the fact that the Lord may have a very different version of himself than I do. And I get surprised sometimes when God's plans actually exceed my own. I find out that I've asked for or expected too little.
• 7:44
  from him. In Ephesians chapter 3, in verse 20, it says that he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. He is able to do more than we can even imagine. That's what scripture says. Our imaginations at times are even too small. And because the Lord exceeds our expectations, I do think that the most blessed people on earth are the ones who allow God to be who he is.
• 8:18
  The point of this morning's passage is this. God gives us what we need and when we need it. But not just in the silly, trivial things. God is able and willing to meet our every spiritual and eternal need. He really is the bread for our hungry souls. Now, because of the length of our passage, we're going to kind of read it as we teach it. And if you guys are taking notes, you'll notice in verses 30 to 34, the crowds. Look at verse 30. So they said to him.
• 8:47
  Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Man, that is a weird question. This question comes on the heels of him having fed them miraculously, right? If you look at John chapter 6 and verse 16, it also comes on the heels of what miracle? He walked on water. And it even says that they perceived that he must have because he shows up on the other side of the lake without a boat.
• 9:19
  Well, he must have walked on water. And so now they're saying, what sign do you give? What other sign do you need? Continue in verse 31. Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written. It always seems like a good idea to quote scripture to God, right? He gave them bread from heaven to eat. After all, even our forefathers had bread from heaven every day. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven.
• 9:52
  But my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Give us this bread always. He had already performed miraculous signs. He had already done miracles and performed for them. And they had refused to believe. And now they're asking for another sign or performance in verse 5.
• 10:22
  30 there is an emphasis in the greek on the word you what sign do you do what work do you perform it's as if the jewish crowd is saying who are you to make such claims it seems preposterous to think that the same crowd that had been fed one day before who had concluded that he had walked on water could make such a request and yet it's like they're giving christ an ultimatum here
• 10:54
  If you'll just do one more miracle, just one more, and then we'll believe. You want us to follow you? Do one more. Do one more. They claimed that if they saw first, then they would be inclined to believe. But was that true? Would he do additional miracles? Yes. And would they believe? No. John chapter 12, verse 37. Listen to what this says. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
• 11:29
  John chapter 15, verse 24, Jesus speaking. He says, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and the Father. Can you hear him there, John 15? It's like he's saying, the more signs I did, the less you believed. The more miracles I provided for you, the more you hated me. You didn't embrace. J.C. Ryle has said this, the truth of it is.
• 12:02
  That it is want of heart, not want of evidence that keeps people back from Christ. The problem is not an evidential problem. It's not that we need more. It's that we need to believe what he's already given. He says, you don't need more. You need a new heart. The Jews had signs and evidences and proofs of Christ's messiahship in abundance, but they would not see them. And just so, many a professed unbeliever of our day has plenty of evidence around him.
• 12:33
  but he will neither look at it nor examine it. I heard a man one time say, none are so blind as those who refuse to see. Do we ever have trouble seeing what God has clearly shown us? I think about what God has already shown me, what God has revealed to me, what God has done for me. The prayers answered, the gifts provided, the blessings received. And when I think about that, I have no reason to doubt him.
• 13:08
  He's already shown himself to me. My youngest son, my nine-year-old Chase, was in our front yard a couple of days ago. I was playing catch with one of my older boys. Chase was riding his bike around our little cul-de-sac, you know, making circles. And while he was doing that, our next-door neighbor, who was just a beloved man, honestly, he's become a good friend who loves the Lord and has just become just such a good friend to my little Chase. His name is Max, and Chase calls him Mr. Max.
• 13:39
  Mr. Max and Chase were having a conversation this last week. And Chase was talking about creation. He said, if you look around at all the things that God has made, you know, the rocks and the trees and the water and the leaves and the flowers and everything, the mountains and all of these things. Chase was telling him, you know, he's getting preaching a little bit. And he said, Mr. Max, there are people who think this all just happened all by itself.
• 14:09
  That this just all happened, you know, and Max is just sitting there and he's taking it. And Chase says, use your brains, people. Use your brains, people. You know, that's pretty good advice. I don't know very many Christians who would deny creation evidence. I don't know that there's very many people in here who are going to look around at creation and say, yeah, this all just happened. Not very many Christians will do that. But there are plenty of Christians and myself included.
• 14:46
  who will look at other types of spiritual evidence of God working along the way, of God providing, of God answering prayer. We'll look at grass and trees and say, God had to have done that. But then we'll look at our own lives and wonder where God is at work. We deny spiritual evidence of God in our lives. I would say, let's use our brains, people. That's first, the crowds. Notice second, verses 35 to 40 are three.
• 15:21
  of the Lord's greatest claims strung together like pearls in our passage. Look at verses 35 and 36. The first claim he's going to make is about himself. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Now this is...
• 15:48
  one of the eight famous I am statements in the Gospel of John. The soul of every man is starving and famishing away with no possibility for nourishment due to our sin. But Scripture says the Father has provided the Son in order to feed the soul. And in the same way that bread sustains, so also Christ sustains. In the same way that man cannot last but temporarily without bread, so also the soul of a man.
• 16:20
  is wholly dependent upon the consistent feeding, the sustenance of Christ and his word. And so the question becomes then is, if Jesus is our bread, then are we eating? We are a people who never miss a meal, right? I mean, we eat. We know how to eat. We know what we like to eat. We eat whether we're hungry or not. Our eating is often driven by the clock rather than our stomach.
• 16:52
  We'll eat at breakfast time because it's breakfast time. Whether we're hungry or not, we eat. We wouldn't think of starving our physical bodies and yet many of us are starving spiritually. The same truth is still true on a spiritual level. There is bread provided through the word of God and through his son. Are we eating? We get really concerned and as well we should be when we see our young ones starving, famished.
• 17:24
  hungry? What about their souls? Are we teaching our children to become consumed with the things that will actually satisfy us? Or do other more trivial and temporary things get in the way? Are we ever in danger of worshiping things that have no chance of actually filling us? Tim Kiziar has said this, and I heard this years ago. It has haunted me since. The greatest danger to the church is not failure, but success.
• 17:59
  in things that don't matter. The greatest danger to the church is not failure, but rather success in things that don't matter. We can succeed in a whole bunch of things in this life and yet come to the end of it and realize it was wasted. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He is the only thing that satisfies. The second claim that he makes in verse 37 is about those who come to him. Notice verse 37 says, all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me.
• 18:30
  I will never cast out. What better promise from Scripture is there than this? It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. It doesn't matter how bad your sin or how frequent. You are welcome to come to Christ. I have a tendency to, when I'm living in unrepentant sin, withdraw from the presence of God rather than to run to the presence of God. If you're one of those people who is so spiritually sensitive that as soon as you sin, it drives you back to the cross.
• 19:04
  Praise God for that. That is a gift. But not all of us do that. Some of us hide from the presence of God or more frequently will hide from his presence residing in other believers, struggling in sin. And that sin drives us away, not from God's presence so much, but as God's presence residing in his people, drives us away from fellowship, drives us away from accountability. We don't want to get asked questions, right? We don't want to have to answer direct questions.
• 19:38
  Listen again to J.C. Ryle. He says there is an infinite readiness in Christ to receive, pardon, justify, and glorify sinners. An infinite readiness. Can you imagine that? If there is distance between us and God, it's not because of God. If there is a distance, it's because of us. There is an infinite readiness. He never, ever, ever shuts the door. We can always come. Again, he continues.
• 20:10
  Jesus will receive us with joy when we come. It's not even like he's begrudging, like, okay, I guess I'll forgive you again. Right? I can't go to him, right? Because I know, you guys, I've played these little tricks in my own head. I've done this. I can't go to him and confess because I know that I'm going to fail again. And so I just can't come. I'm not going to walk all over heaven's white carpet with my dirty shoes. I'm just not going to do that. You guys, listen, that is not the presence of the Lord speaking.
• 20:41
  The promise of Jesus has come. I will by no means cast out. Notice finally his claim in verses 38 to 40 about the will of the father. Christ's claim about the will of the father. You pick up in verse 38. I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And so you'll say, well, what is the will of him who sent me? What is the will of the father? And he answers it in verses 39 and 40. Verse 39. And this is the will of him who sent me.
• 21:14
  that i should lose nothing of all that he has given me which you find out in matthew 28 in the great commission is everything all authority in heaven and earth has been granted to me he says so i'm not going to lose anything that was given and he says 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
• 21:43
  Christ here gives the future destiny of every believer, and that is resurrection to eternal life. It is well with our soul, right? Not only in the present, but in the future as well. That's what we have to look forward to. Now, I don't know what each of us will do tomorrow or next week. We should not presume upon the grace of God, thinking that we will guaranteed be here a year from now. None of us is given that promise.
• 22:14
  We can stand before the Lord tonight, but I do know what awaits our souls for eternity. And on that day, imagine the clarity of this passage. I will raise him up on the last day. It's not even the last time he says that phrase in this passage. He says it again in verse 44. I will raise him up on the last day. Does that knowledge, the knowledge of our future,
• 22:47
  change the way that we live in the present? Does the knowledge that we are children of heaven change the way that we live on earth? I think that it should. We often hear stories of rich and eccentric people doing crazy things with their money. Story of a woman who a number of years ago left a portion of her vast fortune, which numbered into the tens of millions.
• 23:21
  left a large portion of it. They said $12 million of her inheritance left to her dog. And then she made her son, whom she had given far less, the executor of that estate. Now, I never saw the conclusion of that story. There was no follow-up or anything else. But my guess is that the son, as the executor, made sure that the dog,
• 23:53
  Didn't get its full 12 million is my guess. I don't know. What in the world? Same article said she left nothing to some of her own grandkids. But 12 million to the dog? I think sometimes God gets that undeserved reputation. Like he's this rich, eccentric, unpredictable God up in heaven.
• 24:25
  who grants to whom he grants and withholds from whom he withholds. And we just never know what God is going to do. And that's not what scripture says. The promise of God's word is that if you are a son or daughter of God, riches await. The vast storehouses of God await in heaven.
• 24:46
  That there is nobody called by his name, nobody called by his name who will be left out. It's not like there will be a will written, you know, read on the last day and it's like, ah, Danny, you were close, but the dog beat you. You know, there's just not going to be a day where it says that happened. Our Lord has no estranged children. Even if you know the Lord and you're walking in sin currently, nobody estranged, nobody left out.
• 25:18
  Our promised inheritance includes resurrection, glorification, riches beyond compare. And if that is true, if that's what we know awaits us, then shouldn't that change the way we act today? What place has fear in our lives? Honestly, what do we have to be afraid of? Knowing that that awaits. What anxiety and worry do we need to carry? Knowing that that is our future.
• 25:46
  What doubt should we have today knowing that that is our tomorrow? Knowing that we are children of heaven changes the way we live on earth. C.J. Mahaney has said this, we must live today in light of that day, that day. Notice finally, the people begin to complain. In verse 41, it says, so the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They grumbled about him.
• 26:18
  Our first response, I've noticed, tends to be rejection rather than acceptance, to discredit rather than embrace. And this attitude certainly seems prevalent in the crowd. They continue to sling accusation now against Jesus in verse 42. They say, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he say he came down from heaven? Make no mistake.
• 26:48
  This is a dig on his genealogy. The son of Joseph. Jesus was the one who claimed to have no earthly father. Jesus was the one whose mother said that she had conceived of the Holy Spirit. They remembered the controversial pregnancy. They remembered. And so now they're looking at him. They stopped enjoying what he had to say. He's making claims they no longer agree with. And so they say, you know what? We know your dad. We're not falling for the whole Holy Spirit thing.
• 27:21
  That's not going to fly. We know who you are. We know who your mother is. How can you say you came down from heaven? Now, had Christ come in power and heavenly royalty, I don't think they would have cared who his dad was. They undoubtedly would have lined up to receive him, but their pride would not allow for a lowly Messiah. This simple statement cut at Christ's claim.
• 27:54
  that he was without an earthly father and we see in verse 43 his response jesus answered them don't grumble among yourselves no one can come to the i'm sorry no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and i will raise him up on the last day no one can come he says unless the father draws now here we have one of the cardinal doctrines of the new testament mankind is incapable of coming to god apart from the grace of god drawing him
• 28:27
  And it would be untrue for us to think that mankind has somewhere deep down in his heart a desire to come to God but is unable. That is not the truth. The truth is that we have no desire at all, no wish to be in God's presence at all. Don't imagine the throngs of humanity banging on heaven's closed door, begging for entrance.
• 29:00
  Rather, instead, imagine heaven's door agape, wide open, all welcomed, all invited, and yet mankind has no desire to enter. The drawing of the Father is a replacement of that heart within each of us.
• 29:22
  The only reason any of us wants to be in the presence of God is because God has given us a new heart. That is the drawing of the Father. The Father draws us by giving us a heart that actually desires to know Him, to love Him, to be known by Him. That's what it is. We in our hearts desire separation from God because of our sin. The Father must, in order to win us, replace that heart with a heart that desires Him. Do you have a death grip on your version of God?
• 29:57
  Would you be like these people who saw God, maybe glimpses of God, pieces of God for what he was, but wanted to force him into a mold that would actually diminish his presence, diminish his kingdom, diminish his mission? Jesus said he is the bread of life. He came to satisfy our hungry souls. And church, nothing else can. The most blessed people on earth are those who allow God to be God.
• 30:30
  and change our hearts to match that definition. Amen? God, we are so thankful for your word, so thankful for this church and the joy that it is to gather in fellowship, a partnering together in the gospel to get the word out about your son. God, be glorified and worshiped here. Pray that the gospel would be proclaimed. I pray that you would continue to give wisdom to the board members and leaders and pastors of this church so that we can lead your people well.
• 31:00
  God, I pray that we would grow in Christ's likeness and that you would complete what you began in us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.