PRE-TALK earlier in the service
Three pictures / slides
(1) Israelites collecting manna in the wilderness
~1450 or 1270 B.C. ‘Manna’ = ‘what is it?’
The people of Israel had fled slavery in Egypt. They travelled eastwards, crossed the Red Sea and entered the Sinai Peninsula. There isn’t a lot of food in the Sinai Peninsula but God provided for them by sending something called manna.
Ask: how important was manna for the Israelites? Manna was a matter of life and death. There was literally nothing else for the Israelites to eat. How often did they collect it? Who gave it? What did the Israelites have to do? (Very little)
(2) Jesus feeding 5,000
~25 A.D. / Jesus feeds 5,000 people (or more).
In Bible times bread was REALLY IMPORTANT. It was the all-important commodity. It was people’s daily sustenance. It was the staple food. In Bible times, bread was usually made at home. Loaves were round and flat. Some bread was made from wheat flour but it was more often made from barley. In the feeding of the 5,000, the loaves were barley loaves.
Ask: How important was the food for the crowd? Who gave it? What did the people have to do?
(3) Bread in a tendir oven in Azerbaijan
Priscilla and I lived in Azerbaijan for 17 years. Sophie and Daniel were born while we were there and had a large part of their childhood there. One of the things we LOVED about Azerbaijan was the bread. In Azerbaijani, bread is called ‘churek.’ It’s usually round and flat and it’s cooked in a clay oven called a ‘tendir’. That kind of bread is called ‘tendir chureyi.’ Sometimes we’d be out somewhere in the car. We’d pull up next to a baker’s and buy a couple of loaves. They would take the loaves out of the oven, put them in a piece of newspaper, and then give them to you – and you’d need to be holding them in your sleeves! They were HOT! There was often not much left by the time we got home – they were so delicious. In Azerbaijan, bread was almost holy. It was never thrown away. Azerbaijanis ate lots of bread. When we arrived in Azerbaijan, a salary of about £40 a month was considered good and lots of people earned a lot less than that. When that’s your salary, you can’t afford a lot of nice food. Lots of Azerbaijanis mostly lived on bread.
MAIN TALK
We’re back in our series on ‘Encounters with Jesus in John’s gospel.’ We’ve looked at Jesus’ disciples, amazed at the fact that he turned water into wine. Nicodemus, baffled when Jesus told him he needed to be born again. A Samaritan woman at a well, suprised to be asked for a drink. A paralysed man who met Jesus one day at a pool – and was healed. Today, we’re looking at a crowd of 5,000 people. They were hungry and Jesus gave them food: bread and fish.
Apart from the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus’ feeding 5,000 people is the only event that’s recorded in all four gospels – so it must be really important. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record quite a number of Jesus’ miracles – on average about 20 each. John doesn’t record so many. He only records about eight. John tends to record miracles which point to a spiritual truth. That is certainly the case here. After Jesus physically fed 5,000 people, he went on to talk about an even more amazing spiritual truth. That’s what I’m going to concentrate on today: the spiritual truth. I’m not going to say MUCH about Jesus physically feeding 5,000 people. But I don’t want to skip it entirely. If I did then we’d miss something important.
Jesus provided physical food for 5,000 people! He saw that people needed food and he provided it. It tells us something about Jesus – that he’s a lord who sees what we need, who cares, and who does something about it. That’s important thing for us to remember. There will be times when we have material needs. Jesus is the one to go to. Not only should we go to Jesus when we have material needs, he has given us an example to follow. HE saw people in need and did something about it. That means WE should too. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Christians from the west went to Albania. They were shocked by what they saw. A United Nations report in 1991 said that hardly any industry in the country was still working. Few people had jobs and those who did had pitifully low salaries. Eggs, fish and meat were nowhere to be seen. Hospital equipment was very, very old. A doctor in a major hospital did not have even a stethoscope. A surgeon had only one pair of rubber gloves which he washed between operations. So Christians from the west saw material needs. What did they do? They distributed bread, and they brought in medical, dental and relief supplies. They followed Jesus’ example. So should we, when we see people in need.
Let’s go back to Jesus’ miracle. If there was an award for the most impressive miracle, this would be a strong contender! Jesus fed 5,000 people from one boy’s packed lunch! The crowd was seriously impressed!
Jesus sends his disciples off in a boat and then – as if he hadn’t already done enough that was amazing that day – he walks on water to catch up with them.
The following day, the crowd come chasing after him. Today, if you’re a film star and your new film is just about to come out, or if you’re a top tennis player and you’ve just won Wimbledon, journalists will want to interview you. The people who come to find Jesus have questions.
I don’t think their questions are very smart!
Their first question is, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’
That doesn’t seem like the brightest question. If you’re interviewing The Rock – Dwayne Johnson – you probably won’t kick off with ‘So, Dwayne, when did you come here?’ But Jesus steers the conversation on to what HE really wants to talk about and that’s what I want to focus on. Jesus tells the people who had come looking for him: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’ Jesus is saying, ‘You’ve come looking for me. BUT IT ISN’T BECAUSE YOU GRASPED THE SIGN. It’s because you want some more bread.’ He then continues: ‘Do not LABOUR for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.’ Jesus used the word ‘labour.’ In other words, ‘Don’t labour, don’t stress yourself out for food that perishes.’ LOTS of people today do that. And now Jesus starts to introduce the spiritual truth he wants to talk about. PHYSICAL BREAD PERISHES – BUT THERE’S ANOTHER KIND OF FOOD WHICH DOESN’T PERISH. THIS FOOD ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE! AND HE IS THE ONE WHO GIVES IT. So the people wonder what they have to do, to get this bread.
They ask their second question: ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’
Jesus answers: ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ Jesus continues to develop the spiritual truth. To get physical bread you might have to labour. BUT TO GET THE BREAD THAT JESUS IS TALKING ABOUT, THERE ARE NO TASKS TO COMPLETE. NO LABOUR IS REQUIRED. THE ONLY THING THAT’S REQUIRED IS TO BELIEVE. Wow! Free bread!
Now the people ask their third question. ‘Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?’
The interviewers then mention Moses and manna. The point they’re making is: Moses worked this miracle. What will you do? This is the height of dopiness. Jesus has just worked one of the most amazing miracles ever. The people have seen it! That’s why they’ve come chasing after him. And yet they ask him, ‘What sign do you do?’! But it gives Jesus the opportunity to say more about the spiritual truth. He dismisses the idea that it was Moses who gave ‘bread from heaven.’ On the contrary, IT IS GOD – HIS FATHER – WHO GIVES THE TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN. And now, Jesus says something amazing. ‘FOR THE BREAD OF GOD IS HE WHO COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND GIVES LIFE TO THE WORLD.’
Let’s recap. Jesus is telling the people an amazing spiritual truth. There is another kind of food which doesn’t perish. It endures to eternal life! God the Father gives it. And Jesus IS it. To get it, there are no tasks to complete. The only thing that’s required is to believe. But this true bread isn’t like other bread. Jesus tells the people: ‘FOR THE BREAD OF GOD IS HE WHO COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND GIVES LIFE TO THE WORLD.’ This bread IS A PERSON. Then, Jesus makes it absolutely clear. That person is him. Look at verse 35. Jesus said to them, ‘I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE; WHOEVER COMES TO ME SHALL NOT HUNGER, AND WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST.’
What are we going to do with this? Jesus has compared himself to bread. Bread is important. In Jesus’ day, bread was much more important to people than bread is to us today. It was people’s daily sustenance. It was the staple food. When Jesus is saying ‘I am the bread of life’ it means ‘I’m what you need, day by day. I’m your daily sustenance.’ But Jesus is food which doesn’t perish. We want HIM.
What is life like when we don’t have Jesus? I don’t know how everyone’s life is. But there are certainly lots of accounts of people who, on the face of it, achieved a lot – but were not satisfied.
Lord Byron is one of the greatest of English poets. But he wasn’t a happy man. He once said, ‘I have not had ten happy days.’ A few years after he died, another poet, Robert Pollock, wrote a poem about him. He described him this way:
Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump
Of fame, drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts
That common millions might have quenched; then died
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink.
It seems that Byron wasn’t satisfied.
Early in the 20th century there was an American lawyer called Clarence Darrow. I don’t suppose any of us have heard of him, but he was involved in some of the biggest cases in the US in his time. In 1925 a teacher in Tennessee named John Scopes was charged with the crime of teaching evolution. Darrow defended him. It’s become known as ‘the Scopes Monkey Trial.’ It seems like a really interesting case but it’s not our subject for today! The point is that Darrow was – in most people’s eyes – a very successful person. But towards the end of his life someone – a minister, I think – talked with Darrow about his life. Darrow took a Bible and opened it to Luke 5. It was the place where Jesus preached from Peter’s boat, then told Peter, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ Peter told Jesus: ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing…’ Darrow then said, ‘This verse in the Bible describes my life: “I have toiled all the night and have caught nothing.”’ It seems that Darrow wasn’t satisfied.
After the actor Kenneth Williams died someone gathered up some journals he’d kept and published them. He’d written: ‘I wonder if anyone will ever know about the emptiness of my life.’ It seems that Williams wasn’t satisfied.
Many people labour for what, ultimately, does not satisfy. They labour to develop a career or gain friends. They think that a better job, or more money, or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, will satisfy them. But we don’t need to be in that situation. There is true bread. There’s bread that truly satisfies. This bread – this thing that truly satisfies – is a person. Jesus said ‘I AM the bread of life.’ He is ‘the true bread from heaven ... the bread of God … who … gives life to the world.’
In the Old Testament, Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73 wrote this:
‘Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.’
It seems that Asaph was very satisfied!
Billy and Ruth Graham had five children. Their second child was Anne Graham Lotz. About 20 years ago Lotz wrote a book titled ‘Just give me Jesus.’ She starts by describing what life was like for her in 1999 and 2000. She said it was ‘pressure packed and trouble filled.’ It clearly was – at a really extreme level. She then wrote: ‘Even now, my duties and responsibilities at times seem overwhelming, and my schedule is overfilled. But I don’t want a vacation, I don’t want to quit, I don’t want sympathy, I don’t want money, I don’t want recognition, I don’t want to escape, I don’t even want a miracle! This book is the cry of my heart—JUST GIVE ME JESUS. Please!’ Anne Graham Lotz knew what would satisfy her: Jesus. He was the ONLY one who could meet her need. I would absolutely say the same. I became a Christian when I was about 10 and I have been following Jesus ever since. He has been in my life and in our life as a married couple. He has constantly met our needs by what he has supplied. But we don’t go to him for what he supplies. We go to him for who he is. He, by his presence, gives us strength, guidance, encouragement, purpose.
Let me finish with a rather important question. How do we get that true bread? Look again at verse 35.
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever COMES to me shall not hunger, and whoever BELIEVES in me shall never thirst.’ We need to COME to Jesus. And we need to BELIEVE in him. The Israelites in the wilderness had to step out of their tents day by day to gather the manna, the bread from heaven. In the same way, we need to come to Jesus, not just once but consistently, regularly. When we do that, Jesus enters our lives and satisfies us like no other bread can.
Prayer
Thank you, heavenly Father, that you sent us Jesus, the true bread of heaven. Anne Graham Lotz cried out, ‘Just give me Jesus.’ Lord Jesus, we need you! I need you! As the famous hymn goes, ‘Bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore.’ Amen.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 10.30 a.m. service.
