In Jesus Holy Name Pentecost 14 August 8, 2021
Text: John 6:28-29;35-51
“A Message of Offense: Jesus said, “I Am”
Last Sunday our Gospel reading was from John chapter 6. Today our Gospel reading is from John Chapter 6. Our Gospel lesson next week is from John chapter 6. In staff this week I said “How can I preach on the same theme, “Jesus is the Bread of life” three weeks in a row? I can’t do it. There is nothing new that I can say.”
Then I realized: “That’s right. There is nothing new…The entire chapter of John chapter is about Jesus who meets our most basic spiritual needs.1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our limited time on earth.
Professor and author Leonard Sweet in his book: “The Bad Habits of Jesus” writes: “From healing on the Sabbath, to eating with unwashed hands and touching unclean people, to declaring Himself God,” these were acts of heresy to the Jewish religious scholars. Every time Jesus used the phrase “I Am”, in the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus was sinning against the God of the Sabbath.”
Every Jewish listener knew that the name for God given to Moses is the name: “Yahweh”, “I Am I Am” this is the name of the God of Creation; “I Am” is the God who delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; “I Am” is the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Whenever Jesus used the phrase: “I Am the Bread of Life”: I Am the light of the world”; I Am the Good Shepherd” His message was clear. “I Am the God of the Burning Bush”.
In John chapter 10 we are told that Jesus came to the temple in the winter for the “Feast of Dedication”, We know it as Hanukkah. (Read John 10:22-33)
The Pharisees rejected the miracles of Jesus, He was healing on the Sabbath. Healing was considered work, which an honorable, deeply religious Jew would never do. He was a rabbi. He should know better, so they rejected His claim to Deity. Even the resurrection of Lazarus from 4 days dead was not enough to prove that “Yahweh”, the great “I Am” was in their presence. By Spring of the coming year, Jesus was arrested, crucified on a Roman cross and buried. The Pharisees thought that would be the end of the Jesus story. As you well know it was not the end.
In last week’s Gospel lesson after Jesus fed the 5000 He said: “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51) For the Religious leaders of Israel Jesus was committing heresy. In the theological mind of the Pharisee, the words, “Bread of life” was another way of referring to the words of God in the Old Testament. In the Jewish mind, if your soul was empty, if you were seeking peace with God, then the answer to the spiritual hunger of your soul would be found in the written words of their scriptures. The 1st Testament was considered to be the Manna from heaven, the bread of life. When Jesus said “I am the true Manna from Heaven” He meant: “I am the God of the burning bush standing in your presence.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “you search the scriptures to find eternal life, they point to me.” I am the manna that has come down from heaven. “ I am the bread of life… he who believes in me has eternal life. His resurrection from death and the grave after His crucifixion secures our eternal address by faith in Him.
When Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd” He was telling the Pharisees to remember the words of Ezekiel 34.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! (v 2) “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them”. “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays….” Do you remember the famous parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99 to seek for the one lost lamb”. (Luke 15) The Sovereign Lord says: “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak… I will judge between one sheep an another and separate the sheep” (v17) from the goats.
When Jesus said: “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7,9) He is repeating the promise that “he who believes in me will have everlasting life…for I am the Bread of life.” Yes, Jesus is the answer to our most basic spiritual question, forgiveness before our righteous God and faith in Jesus secures your eternal address in heaven.
Every building has an entrance somewhere. The Kingdom of God also has an entrance. It is Jesus Christ. Jesus said: God has only one door to His Kingdom. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) No one comes to eternal life except by faith in Jesus. That is why Peter, on trial before the same Pharisees who crucified Jesus said: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
When Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5). This is what followiwng Jesus means. Practical Christianity. (Explained by Paul in Ephesians 4"17- 5:2)
When God gives you the Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit that enables you to believe the words and teachings of Jesus to be true. Remember, your acceptance before God is not a question of your efforts, how well you did this week, how much you read the Bible or prayed or resisted temptation. Your acceptance is always a question of what Jesus Christ has done for you though His blood shed on the cross. (Jesus Speaks Leonard Sweet p102)
The Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life. What kind of fruit? Agape, Love, Selfless love. Joy is another fruit. Joy in the midst of all kinds of problems and suffering. There’s peace. You have peace in your heart. And then you have patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. These are produced by the Holy Spirit. And you can live this kind of life with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Stop talking about God’s love, stop studying about God’s love, just get out there and do Christianity. (Douglas Gresham stepson of C.S. Lewis)
In the first century many of the Jews came to the conclusion that Jesus was a liar. They accuse him of lying when He taught in the synagogue. “ No,” they said, “you do not have the right to forgive sins”…. Jesus responded by saying…. So you think! But what is easier to say to this paralyzed man, or this man with a withered hand…. “Your sins are forgiven or “stretch forth your hand”, “rise and walk”. “So that you may know that I have authority on earth to forgive sins….” ‘get up, take your mat and go home.’ “stretch forth you hand and be healed.” Both were visual realities that the God of the burning bush was in their presence.
What drags my life away from the harmony and peace with God that the human heart desires? It is broken commandments. Broken ethics which leave a mountain of regret and guilt. We need freedom from guilt. God, (our Creator and eternal Judge) placed on Jesus all our sins, and (transferred) to each believer His righteousness. (II Corinthians 5:21) The fact is that Jesus died on a Roman cross as our substitute in order to free our soul from the wrath of God against broken ethics and broken commandments.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” He alone, satisfies our soul hunger. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the Life, he who believes in me has eternal life.”
Oh, wait! There is another option: Another option? You can come to the conclusion that Jesus was a legend. Historians, even Atheist acknowledge that a man name Jesus, whom the Bible takes about was a man who lived in history. But what is meant by legend is that after his death on the cross a story developed that he was resurrected or resuscitated. The legend grew to include his miracles and his powers.
Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” is a book that promotes Jesus as a legend. Remember, in the “Da Vinci Code” Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, who was in the painting of the “last Supper”. Together they had a child but she escaped to France where she raised their child.
We all understand legends. We have many in our culture. The story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or Merlin the magician, are just such legends. What about Pocahontas, True or false?
The Jewish religious establishment knew that Jesus was making the claim that the God of Creation, the One who dwelt in the temple was now walking the dusty back roads and city pavements. They knew what the words “I Am” meant.
Jesus had this bad habit of describing himself as the God of the Burning Bush. For example:
1- Jesus said He existed before Abraham.
2- Jesus said he was present at the beginning of creation
3- Jesus said God the Creator was His father 120 times in the gospel of John
4- Jesus said He could forgive sins. The religious Pharisees challenged Jesus
noting that only Yahweh could forgive sins at the temple. Jesus responded by
saying “So that you my know that I have authority to forgive sins Jesus said to
the man, lying on the mat, paralyzed from birth: “Get up take your mat and go
home.” He did. (Matthew 9)
After Jesus fed the 5000 the people wanted to make him a Jewish king like King David. They were hoping the “Messiah” would use political and military power drive out the Romans, a social crusade. What they saw was a crucifixion on a Roman cross, a garden tomb. Some just missed the most powerful message of all…Jesus rose from the grave and death.
The prophecy of John the Baptism came true: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” At the moment of His death the temple curtain which hid the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom. Access to God the Father, was now no longer prohibitive. Jesus said, “No one comes into the Father’s presence except through me.” Now we look forward to His return, when He will transform our bodies to be fashioned like His glorious body.
In April of 1988, a TV cameraman jumped out of a plane to get some footage of other skydivers. He did a great job, filming the opening of one chute after another. With the last of the free-fallers safely drifting to earth, it was time to pull the ripcord on his own chute. When he reached for the line, he realized he had completely forgotten to put on his own parachute.
The camera, in the following minutes before the deadly crunch into the ground, told the story of a man who had made the worst mistake of his life. His facts were wrong; his faith had been misplaced. Don't you make the same mistake as that parachutist. Get the facts and get to know the Savior.
