Choosing What Matters Most John 6:28-35 (NCV)
Part 2 of 3 in the Series, Jesus in Blue Jeans, Practical Advice for Everyday Spiritual Life
As we began the series Jesus in Blue Jeans last week we saw that Jesus is a down-to-earth Savior. He is God come to earth in human form – and not in a grandiose manner. He lived simply. He worked as a carpenter – a blue jeans kind of job. He hung out with normal people. He chose average guys as His apprentices. The word pictures He paints of Himself, like the Good Shepherd we covered last Sunday, are meant to show how He identifies with us in our every day lives. God cares about, and wants to be a part of, my daily life. He’s passionate about my ups and downs, my needs and concerns, my hurts and longings.
I’ve entitled this series, Jesus in Blue Jeans because you don’t have to be afraid to draw near to God. Reverence Him, sure, but don’t stand off in the distance from Him. Draw near to Him! Jesus came to earth to show us how much God wants to be our friend. So He came, not only as a human being, but also as the approachable God-man.
Today we’ll focus on another blue jean word picture Jesus gave to describe Himself.
He said, “I am the bread that gives life.” John 11:35 (NCV)
Bread is the most common of all foods. People in every culture on earth make bread of some sort. Jesus didn’t say, “I’m the caviar that gives life,” nor did He say, “I’m the truffles that gives life.” He said, “I am the bread that gives life.” He wanted everyone of us to be able to identify with the symbolism He uses here in our text Scripture from chapter six of John’s Good News Account.
The Jesus in Blue Jeans example for today begins with a question asked Jesus by some of the people after He had performed the miracle of feeding over 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.
“The people asked Jesus, ‘What are the things God wants us to do?’” John 6:28 (NCV)
That’s a pretty good question. They had seen the miracle and it piqued their curiosity. We should all sincerely ask God this same question: “What are the things you want me to do? What’s really important? What really matters so much in life that you want me to pursue it?”
I want to talk to you today about “Choosing What Matters Most.” There are a lot of things I can do with my life but I need to discover what really matters most. I need to find out the best things to do with my life.
This is important because the choices I make will determine whether or not I have God’s blessing on my life. As we saw last week, a life blessed by God is a “rich and satisfying life,” (John 10:10) and I actually get to choose whether or not I want to live a life blessed by God. God is in control of the universe but amazingly at the same time the Bible teaches that He has given me a choice. I can choose what matters most and have His spiritual blessing. Or I can choose less important things and miss His blessing.
This is a long-standing biblical principle. Moses put it this way to God’s people thousands of years ago.
“I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse. A blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods…” Deuteronomy 11:6-8 (GNT)
The Hebrew root of the word translated “curse” in our English Bibles means “light,” or “empty.” I think the Bible is saying that my choice is whether or not I want to live a life with God’s blessing or without it. Do I want to go through life “empty” of God’s blessings? My spiritual being is a container. (2 Corinthians 4:7) To go through life “empty” of God’s blessings is the meaning of a curse. It isn’t just that God pronounces judgement on me if I don’t choose to accept Him and His love for me. I have brought emptiness on myself when I don’t choose what matters most!
Do I want to “get by” or do I want to “get blessed?”
So the question was asked of Jesus, “What are the things God wants us to do?” is a very relevant question for us all.
Here’s Christ’s answer to this question.
Jesus answered, "The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent." John 6:29 (NCV) (Circle, “Believe the One he sent.”)
That’s what God wants me to do! This is what matters most - believing in Jesus, because Jesus is the One God sent from heaven to earth. The thing that matters most in my life is trusting in Christ, living by what He says and following the example that He set.
But that’s not the answer that satisfies a lot of people. Human nature chafes at this concept. This is a play on words. Jesus said, “The WORK that God wants you to do is this: BELIEVE the One he sent.” People like to think that their WORK gets them to heaven. But it is the WORK that Jesus did in living and dying for us that is the only WORK that WORKS!
“So the people asked, ‘What miracle will you do? If we see a miracle, we will believe you. What will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. This is written in the Scriptures: ’He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’"
“Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. God’s bread is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ The people said, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’”
“Then Jesus said, ‘I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’” John 6:30-35 (NCV)
The majority of these people followed Jesus because they wanted perpetual free food, miracles on demand, not because they were spiritually hungry. Verse 2 of John chapter 6 (NCV) reads: “Many people followed him because they saw the miracles he did…”
Just before Jesus spoke these words over 5,000 people had eaten the miracle bread, which was multiplied from the five small pancakes of bread from the little boy’s lunch. But they would get physically hungry again. However, if they would eat the spiritual bread that Jesus offered, they would never be spiritually hungry again!
These words of Jesus and this word picture of Himself as “the bread that gives life” provide two great GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING WHAT MATTERS MOST.
How does Jesus, in this blue jean word picture of Himself as “the bread that gives life,” guide me into making the right choices in life, the choices that will determine the level of God’s blessing on my life?
First of all, these blue jean words and example of Jesus teach me to…
1. PLACE SPIRITUAL NEEDS BEFORE PHYSICAL NEEDS.
If I want to choose what matters most I place spiritual needs before physical needs. This is where the battle for what matters most is most often lost. It’s so easy to lose sight of what matters most when we live in such a materially obsessed culture. Spiritual things aren’t considered to be the most important in our culture. Material things are worshipped and given precedence in our world.
What are the things that we are constantly told matter most? A good job, lots of money, a good education, a fine house, nice cars, 21st Century technological gadgets…
There’s nothing wrong with having any and all of those things. But they are NOT what matter most. Here’s another example from Christ’s ministry that addresses what matters most.
“A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?’ And he went on to say to them all, ‘Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.’”
“Then Jesus told them this parable: ‘There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, ‘I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’ And Jesus concluded, ‘This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.’” Luke 12:13-21 (GNT)
Jesus is not denouncing growing crops or owning barns. He’s not against capitalism. He isn’t against making money or the wise investment thereof. He isn’t against me owning things. He’s against things owning me. His story, spoken after the request for him to arbitrate an estate dispute, is meant to illustrate what matters most. Physical things matter - but they don’t matter as much as spiritual things. It’s all right to enjoy God’s prosperity, but don’t ever forget that it is always more important to be rich in God’s sight.
“…if your wealth increases, don’t make it the center of your life.” Psalms 62:10 (NLT)
My job matters but it doesn’t matter as much as the spiritual emphasis I give to my life. The house I live in matters but so does my church. Making sure my family is fed matters but so does making sure the poor have something to eat. It’s great to succeed in life, but not at the expense of cutting moral corners.
The parable of the rich fool illustrates the foolishness of a life of selfishness. It’s a mistake to think that if I think only of myself I will live a more fulfilling life. It is when I love God with all my heart and mind and soul and strength, it’s when I love my neighbor as I love myself, it is when my life exhibits this spiritual richness, that I will live a rich and satisfying life – a life that enables God to fill my spirit with His blessings.
If I enjoy material things but neglect spiritual things I do so to my own loss, my own emptiness, not fullness.
Now back to the “Jesus in Blue Jeans” word picture of Jesus as “the bread that gives life.”
The crowd said, “If we see a miracle, we will believe in you.” (Verse 30) Christ’s response indicates that He knew that they were interested in following Him for the wrong reason.
Nothing wrong with believing in Jesus because of the miraculous evidence that supports the fact that He is God. That’s one of the reasons He performed the miracles – to give people a platform, a foundation, for believing in Him as the Son of God.
But once I’ve been given proof that Jesus is genuine then my search should be to find out what Jesus taught and how I need to apply it to my life.
Our grandson was at our home last month. He’s a one-year-old with a hearty appetite. He especially loves bread. He will keep on eating bread even after it is apparent that he is already full and doesn’t really need anything else to eat.
If we’re not careful we can act like spiritual one-year-olds. They didn’t need any more miracle evidence that Jesus was God. They didn’t want to learn spiritual truth from Jesus – they just wanted more bread. They wanted to stuff their stomachs while their souls were starving to death.
Jesus loves us and wants to give us bread – but He wants much more for us than just our physical comfort. If I only live my life on a physical plane then I’ve never really discovered the true meaning of life!
If I’m going to choose what matters most, first of all, I must…
PLACE SPIRITUAL NEEDS BEFORE PHYSICAL NEEDS.
I’ve got to make that a habit in my life. I’ve got to keep telling myself, with all the pressing demands of life, that a proper balance comes when I place my spiritual needs and the spiritual needs of others before physical needs.
[I realize that Jesus often met people’s physical needs simply because He loved them. I’m not trying to provide an excuse for not helping people by saying, “I’m so interested in spiritual things that I can’t help you with your physical needs.” I’m saying that even when we meet physical needs because we love others, the spiritual is still what matters most.]
Secondly, if I’m going to choose what matters most this Jesus in blue jeans word picture of Himself as “the bread that give life” teaches me that I must…
2. SEEK WHAT GOD CAN GIVE OVER WHAT MAN HAS TO OFFER.
The crowd had received miracle bread from Christ’s multiplying the five loaves a thousandfold. Their material minds conjured up a miracle like the manna in the Old Testament. When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years all they had to do every morning was go outside and pick up sweet bread off the ground that God had miraculously placed there. (Exodus 16) Would Christ repeat this for them?
Their request was misplaced for a couple of reasons. Not only had they placed the material before the spiritual but they had attributed the miracle to Moses and had forgotten about God. So Jesus corrected their shallow thinking and said,
“…it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven.” John 6:32 (NCV)
Moses was a great man of God. But he was only a channel of God’s blessings. It’s great to be a funnel for God’s blessings. It’s great to be a tool in His hands. But He’s still the source of blessing.
Thinking of what man alone can do for you is shallow spiritual thinking. God can do far more for you than any human can!
One of the primary reasons a lot of people never achieve the level of spiritual satisfaction in life that they long for is that they are drinking from the wrong fountain. No human can provide spiritual satisfaction.
Marriage is a wonderful gift from God for man’s welfare, but your marriage partner can’t fulfill your spiritual longings. Friendship is great. But friends can’t offer you what Christ can. Don’t look to your employer for fulfillment in life. You’ll only be let down. Look to God for what he alone can give you!
Later in this same sermon Jesus said this:
“I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever." John 6:58 (NCV)
Jesus wants to lift us up from a physically dominated existence. He also wants to lift us up from an existence that only recognizes the contributions of men and neglects the blessings of God.
Seven times in this sermon Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:33, 38, 41-42, 50-51, 58) The spiritual hunger of man, though it may be beneath the surface, can only be met with the bread that comes from heaven. Earthly bread won’t cut it. Our spiritual needs cannot be met by other human beings.
We’re going to solidify what Jesus taught by closing the sermon today by observing communion. While we eat the bread that represents Christ’s body and drink the grape juice that reminds of us the sinless blood He shed on the cross for us, I want you to think about these two GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING WHAT MATTERS MOST.
1. PLACE SPIRITUAL NEEDS BEFORE PHYSICAL NEEDS.
2. SEEK WHAT GOD CAN GIVE OVER WHAT MAN HAS TO OFFER.
