Bread Of Life Series

Bread Of Life

CCCAG May 20th, 2018

Scripture- John 6:25-70

I’m grateful someone made a movie about John’s Gospel, because it helps bring to life a lot of the harder teachings in this part of the bible.

This morning we are going to tackle a lengthy and very complex section of John’s Gospel. A few of the commentators and experts in sermon preparation warn that this is no way you can do this justice with just one sermon, and I would agree with them, so I’m making a small compromise. I’m going to still tackle this in one message but after we complete our current Sunday School series, we will go back and do a line by line study of John’s Gospel, so we can really dig into all of these deep truths that we are quickly going over during our sermon time on Sundays so that we can move onto other parts of the bible more quickly.

Most of you know I grew up in a Lutheran Church on the south side of Kenosha. One of the pastors I greatly admired was a man named David Meisner. He was the only pastor I ever met that made me want to be like him.

Pastor Dave was different. HE took a genuine interest in me and he would usually track me down on Wednesday nights just to see how I was doing, even though we probably had 50-70 teens in the confirmation classes at the time.

One Monday morning I had some friends at school that didn’t go to that church that were telling me about a special event going on at their church. That church at the time was only about 10 blocks from my house and they were doing a full carnival and free candy type outreach to the community that Saturday so I said I would walk down and go to it. That church was called First Assembly of God.

Wednesday night rolls around and Pastor Dave sees me and askes me how I’m doing. I told him about the carnival at this church by my house I was planning to go to, and he asked me which church it was at. I didn’t remember the name, but I said “It’s on Pershing Blvd and 60th Street”.

Pastor Dave’s eyes got really wide and he said, “The Assembly of God church?” I said, “Yeah, I think that’s the name of it”

Pastor Dave said, “Johnny, you can’t go anywhere near that church- it’s a huge cult and they believe weird things and I don’t want you to get sucked into that junk”

It’s ironic that I’m now an ordained minister in what the favorite pastor from my youth called a cult.

I used this event from my life as an illustration to what the people surrounding Jesus must have felt like during this time in John’s Gospel.

They had heard about the wedding feast where Jesus changed water to wine.

They heard of the healings surrounding Jesus’ ministry

They had witnessed Jesus feed thousands of people.

Then, they heard his disciples say Jesus walked most of the way to where they are now- across the Sea of Galilee.

All these people are excited and following Jesus like He is some type of traveling road show. It’s like they are waiting for Jesus to pull another rabbit out of a hat, or do something supernatural so they can be amazed and blessed.

Maybe they are thinking, “Well, he fed us yesterday, let’s see what is on the menu today or see how he can bless us in another way.

Then Jesus takes a sudden turn and goes from traveling miracle worker, to a Rabbi teaching deep spiritual truth.

To paraphrase what Jesus initially told them- “Look, you are following me for the miracles- to get something that will satisfy your flesh but you are missing the point.-

27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

Reading the crowds response to that, I don’t think they understood a thing Jesus said. Perhaps they were thinking, “Well, he is talking about us working, so this is the money talk that had to come sooner or later. Jesus needs a living, so now we have to break out our checkbooks and give toward his expanding ministry with a gift.”

So they ask a question that brings us into our first exploration of these verses-

I. What Must We Do? Verse 28

What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Throughout the Gospels, this is the question repeated by many people. The rich young ruler comes to mind when he comes to Jesus and askes what he must do to inherit eternal life. I imagine his hand in on his money bag ready to hand over an offering that will ensure him a free ticket to heaven.