In Jesus Holy Name July 21, 2024
Text: Mark 6:35,38 Redeemer
“The God Who Feeds My Soul”
St. Augustine noted that every person has a God shaped hole in his or her soul. People attempt to fill that cavity with lots of things but nothing satisfies our desire for significance and assurance of redemption….except Jesus the true bread from heaven. Deep in every human soul is a search for “Harmony” with our Creator, that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
What are our most basic spiritual needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our limited time on earth.
Leonard Sweet, Christian professor and author writes: “There is an explosion of Americans seeking spiritual truth….he calls them, “day trippers asking for direction…..scouting the horizon for hope, wonder and a way out of their maze of aimless living.” People want purpose. Their soul is in search for “harmony” with their Creator. This is why there is a wave of baptisms on college campuses across our nation.
Tonya Prewett, the founder of Unite US, whose husband coaches basketball at U. of Auburn, told The Christian Post that the movement “was birthed from a vision God gave me after mentoring college students and hearing about their pain, anxiety and depression.” The events begin with Christians music groups and Pastors who bring the message of the gospel. After students are baptized Unite Us helps them find a local congregation.
On September 12, 2023, thousands of college students gathered at Auburn University’s Neville Arena with one singular focus–to lift the name of Jesus.
What began in Auburn, Alabama has continued to grow into a movement reaching college campuses across the nation. Every Unite Us gathering has three main objectives:
SALVATION
For non-believers to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel in a welcoming environment. Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9
FREEDOM
For believers to know and experience true freedom from sin and burdens on their hearts. Galatians 5:1
COMMUNITY
For students to find community and discipleship through connection to local ministries and the local church. Ephesians 4:1-6
In February United Us held an event at Florida State University in which an estimated 300 people were baptized. Earlier this year at the University of Alabama, there were 260 baptisms occurring.
Since they started, Unite US has visited five college campuses, filling arenas full of college students worshiping Jesus. They've also helped thousands get plugged into a local church and watched as hundreds were baptized.
"God is on the move. And this is just the beginning.
When harmony with God is lost, the hole in the human heart still longs to be filled. Each spring, teens seek to find joy on the beaches of Florida, holding aluminum cans filed with the elixir of life, only to discover a new sunrise brings a bad headache. Almost 20 million Americans seek to bury the sadness of their life with illegal narcotics, robbing their family’s bank account, selling their body and soul for a few moments free from the pain of life.
The Apostle Paul found Athens full of idols. Corinth was known to have more than two dozen temples, each dedicated to a different deity. The world has not changed. In many countries the “government” has become the new “god” to be worshiped, to be depended on for all one’s needs, a basic income promised, to supply our needs, but it includes the cost ….new rules. Social cancellation is the new human attempt to replace the ten commandments as a way to monitor the selfishness of human behavior.
What are our most basic spiritual needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our death.
What drags my life away from the harmony my heart desires? It is broken commandments. Broken ethics which leave a mountain of regret and guilt. We need freedom from guilt. No one is free who is not forgiven. John Stott writes: “It was in the Garden of Eden, not at Watergate, that the device called “cover-up” was first invented.” (Contemporary Christianity p. 48) The head of a large English mental hospital has been quoted as saying, “I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.”
(Contemporary Christianity, John Stott p. 81)
The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian congregation this: 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 that Jesus died as our substitute to free our soul from the wrath of God against broken ethics is opposed and mocked in our secular culture. We cannot surrender the uniqueness of the deity of Jesus Christ to the doctrine of “self-salvation”, which again leaves the soul unfulfilled.
“Once you were alienated from God, (That is the harmony and peace with God that leaves the soul searching) The reason? (Paul continues: “separated from him by your evil behavior, (broken ethics and broken commandments) but now God has brought us back as His friends, reconciled each of us through the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, to present us holy in His sight with out spot or blemish, free from accusation, “if” we continue in your faith….” (Col. 1:19-21)
Having “harmony” with God means that you feel acceptance and peace in your soul. 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)
Jesus said…”your did not choose me I chose you….to come and follow me.
Our 2nd basic need is to know that there is eternal life. People seek “nirvana” through near eastern religions, or try to find hope in “reincarnation”. Others search for eternal life through “cryogenics” hoping science will renew their human existence. These are shinny objects that do not quiet the soul hunger for eternity. Only Jesus and His resurrection can. Jesus was clear. “I am the Bread of Life” I can give you the food that endures to eternal life….He who believes in me will have everlasting life.” (v 47)
The most fantastic of all claims is that Jesus rose from the dead by defeating Satan who holds people in the grip of the fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14) Jesus did not stay dead in the grave, after His crucifixion. His resurrection provides the security of eternal life, our soul is seeking. He came to remove the fear of God’s judgment and death. “Because the soul never dies, Jesus has promised that our body and soul will be reunited at His return and we will receive our glorified resurrection body, fashioned like His glorious body. . (Philippians 3:20,21)
After Jesus fed the 5000, after He walked on the sea of Galilee, he then landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds commandeered boats and sailed in hot pursuit, like a shoal of fish chasing a curiosity around the lake. Crowds pursued Jesus wherever He went, obsessed with one question: “Has the Messiah come?” An old Jewish tradition taught that the Messiah would renew the practice of Moses, serving manna in the wilderness. Had this Jesus not just accomplished that miracle?
Miracles attracted crowds and applause, but their soul hunger would not be satisfied unless they had a personal connection to God. Jesus must have repeated the same words He had spoken to Satan. “Man does not live by bread alone,” “I am the bread of life.…” simply believe in me. Imitate me. Let God’s “love” flow through your life to others, and satisfaction will be experienced.
Jesus said: “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.. Whether the crowds knew or did not know that Jesus fed the crowd of thousands with only 5 loaves of bread and two fish, I don’t know. But I do know that the next day… They were hungry for another miracle, desiring food, already made, already available. They had become addicted.. Of course, the food was free.
Jesus said: “Do not work, do not seek, food that spoils, but seek food that endures to eternal life and the hole in your heart, the search for lost happiness, will be found. Jesus said: “I am the Bread of Life” satisfying humanity’s greatest hunger, an intimate friendship with God. To be a friend you must stay connected with your friend. It is no different being friends with our Creator.
One way that we stay connected is through worship. Worship is more than songs and prayers… as Rick Warren writes in his book the Purpose Driven Life. To worship is too: “Love God with all your heart and soul”… Worship is submission to God and imitating the behavior and words of Jesus.
Robert Capon wrote: “The Messiah was not going to save the world by miracles, Band Aid interventions; a storm calmed sea, a crowd fed there, a mother in law cured back down the road. Rather humanity would be saved by the mystery of His perfect sacrifice on a blood stained cross.
Bread in the Bible is the symbol of spiritual life. People all over the world are the same; they have an inborn hunger for something, and that something is Jesus, the true bread of life. People cannot be satisfied with anything less than Christ. Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (Cf. John 6:33). “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).
When Jesus states: “I am the Bread of life.” He is inviting us to “absorb his teaching, His values, His very being….He is speaking total assimilation, His passion, cross and resurrection and his commands…” What does Jesus say? “If you love me you will obey my commands.” Jesus said... “Take eat this is my body”… There is nothing in any other religion that even comes close to this profound teaching. Ravi Zacharis Jesus Among Other Gods p. 91
It is the Holy Spirit that is the invisible presence of Jesus Christ in each believer. The Holy Spirit fills the hole in the human heart, for the Holy Spirit is truly the very presence of Jesus. The soul comes alive when Jesus moves in and lives in our being. When “harmony” with God exists, “harmony” with all creatures and our fellow human beings becomes reality.
This is how life works. Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches”, but the vine needs the branches to bear fruit. “There is within every human heart a yearning for a connection with the Creator that nothing can satisfy. Only Jesus satisfies. He is the “bread of life.”
I encourage you to listen for the voice of Jesus speaking to your heart.
