Whole Wheat or White? 11-13-05
Have you been to a Subway restaurant lately?
There’s lots of reason’s to go. There’s that menu where all the sandwiches have 5 grams of fat or less, made famous by that Jarred guy. I’m sure you have heard his spiel: I used to weigh 378 pounds and then I started eating at subway and now I’m at my old high school weight of 165 and feeling great. Thank you Subway! Don’t ya just hate that guy? I think when I really started to dislike that Jarred guy was when he made that commercial where he’s standing in a pair of pants that look like they would obviously fit me and he has room in them to walk around. He could have talked about losing weight all day long without giving us that little visual. I was lounging on the couch the first time I saw that commercial minding my own business eating a roll of uncooked cookie dough that somehow, suddenly, lost it’s appeal.
I got up from the couch, wrote Jarred a little letter: I I have a copy right here:
Dear Liar:
I have been eating at Subway since before you were born and my left thigh ways 8 pounds more than your whole body. What drugs did you really take?
P.S. if you want to sell some of those old jeans of yours from the commercial please let me know.
If you haven’t been in a while I’ll tell you something else about Subway. They have always had a million different combinations of meats and cheeses and veggies, fixins, whatever you want to call them. I always get behind some skinny guy “on a diet” who can’t figure out what he wants and then after a thirty minute construction project on his sandwich the counter lady asks him “and what kind of dressing would you like on that” Which guarantees the automatic answer “what kind do you have?” This guy has eaten lunch there everyday for the last three years and he asks everyday “what kind do you have?” Everyday she replies:
We have Ranch, fat free ranch, peppercorn ranch and ranch lite. We have Italian, zesty Italian, creamy Italian, French, German, Russian, and blue cheese, honey mustard, Catalina and thousand island. Which would you like she asks, to which he invariably replies “ I think I just want it plain, I’m on a diet ya know.”
If you regularly go to Subway you have probably at one time or another have experienced everything that I have just described, but now it’s worse, now at the very beginning of the line, just as you are about to get started there are six or seven different types of bread.
I have seen people who simply were not capable of making a timely decision: whole wheat or white, and now they have bombarded them with:
White, wheat, honey oat, Jalapeno, Parmesan oregano, Italian or Monterey, whatever that is.
Can you imagine that people get so wound up in what kind of bread that they have on their sandwich that it turns into a career decision. For some it almost seems to be a life altering decision.
We really shouldn’t be that surprised. you know it’s been that way for at least two thousand years. Turn with me if you will to John chapter 6 verses 26-30.
Just to set the stage a little-bit. Here in John 6 we see Jesus being questioned by a crowd who had the day before seen him feed five-thousand men with 2 fishes and 5 loaves. Many of them had come to Him today because they had been fed by him yesterday and while they still did not appreciate what he could truly give them they did at least follow him in hopes of more bread.
John 6:26-30
26 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
See they still did not realize that they were in the presence of the Son-of –God that they were in the presence of eternal life, their minds were on food, they were concerned with mere bread and so the material things of life had blinded them. Lets read on:
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
Where have we heard that concept before: “do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life”
It rings of the same message we have heard so many times in the New Testament:
Matt 6:19-21
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(NIV)
Matt 6:31-34
31 So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
You see the crowds had come, many of them simply seeking physical food from Jesus, like he gave them the day before, but now He is trying to tell them about a spiritual food, a food that will not just sustain temporarily but rather a spiritual food that will sustain forever and ever.
28 Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ’He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’"
They now understand His claim to be the “one God has sent” but the proof that they request is more bread like they got the day before, you know bread from heaven, manna like their ancestors ate in the desert.
They have before them the very incarnation of God and the proof they request, is a loaf of bread.
32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."
They still think that Jesus is about to provide lunch as proof that He is the Son of God.
35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
The “I Am” of the Book of Exodus, The “I AM” of the burning Bush, The “I AM” of Abraham,and Isaac, and Jacob stands before them offering them eternal life if they will but believe and most of them are unable to see the offer because they are concerned with the prospect of a free lunch. Many of them will perish in the fires of an eternal hell because a few mouthfuls of bread will distract them from eternal life that is standing right in front of them in the flesh.
Oh how serious this choice can be over bread. Do you want physical bread that only satisfies for a short time or do we desire spiritual bread, bread that comes down from heaven, bread that satisfies forever and ever?
How sad that the eyes of their souls were blinded by the desires of their stomachs and they missed him. They missed Him and they missed His offer. Just a few verses latter in verse 41 we read their reaction:
John 6:41
41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
They couldn’t figure out how to satisfy their stomachs with this, this kind of bread that he was offering. He was claiming to have come down from heaven yet without him performing a miracle they would rather have just had the loaf of bread.
We recognize their folly, or at least we pretend to.
We sit here in the house of God dressed in our Sunday go-to meeting clothes, carrying our leather-bound monogrammed copies of the word of God, singing praises to his name, feeling rather pious, but in less than 30 minutes we will leave here and go about the rest of our week, some of us never desiring even the smallest morsel of spiritual food, but rather spending the vast bulk of our time, our very limited time, on this earth totally engrossed with trying to satisfy the material desires of our eyes and stomachs.
How much time did you spend last week seeking the living Bread that came down from heaven, the Bread that once eaten fills our spiritual emptiness forever and ever.
I wonder even right now as we sit in the house of God studying His word how many wish that I would just wind this up so we can beat the other churches to the best seats at Golden Corral. You know a lot of people, a lot of people think they have really good bread there, just the very best bread there. You know they bake it fresh everyday in their own bakery.
Oh but still that’s just not true, it’s not the best bread, because no matter how much of it I eat, even with the wonderful honey butter, it never satisfies for long. That’s how the things of this world are you know. They taste so sweet but they never do really satisfy. They never really do last. They trap us in an illusion of happiness that soon fades. They just build within us the desire to spend our lives acquiring more and more until we have spent every little moment of our lives down to the very last breath chasing after earthly bread, material things, choosing between wheat or white, sports coupe or luxury sedan, while we simply ignore the true bread of life, the bread that comes down from heaven. The bread that once fully taken within you, cleanses you from all unrighteousness, and transforms you into an eternal state of salvation that fills you with a peace and a joy that does not go away, but will instead be with you forever and ever. Amen
Wheat or White, Spiritual or worldly, This morning if you are not a baptized believer in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the question that that is placed before you carries the weight of life and death, Heaven or Hell truly hangs in the balance of your decision this morning. I can’t guarantee you that Jesus won’t come back before next Sunday, However I can absolutely guarantee you that when He does return and make no mistake He’s coming back and at that time those whose names are not found in the book of life will be condemned. There will be a multitude in hell that spent their lives deciding between whole wheat and white. This morning if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you have a chance this morning to chose the Bread Of Life; The Bread That Came Down From Heaven, The Bread that satisfies forever and ever this morning you have the opportunity to chose Jesus Christ. Don’t wait another day, it’s time to chose.
