Pastor John Piper writes, “In 1956 a commemorative Labor Day stamp was issued with a picture of a strong man holding a sledge hammer, a pick, a hoe, and an ax over his shoulder. His wife was seated by his side with a book in her lap showing a small child how to read. In the lower left hand corner was a large block with words of Carlyle carved into it: “Labor is Life.” The meaning was clear and I think it is true: without industrious labor there will be no life—no means to feed, clothe, house, and educate a family or oneself.”
“But it is an amazing and discomforting thing how a true statement (like “Labor is Life”) can mislead us and devastate generations when it is isolated from other truths. If you look at your life solely in terms of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, machines, books, and toys, then the statement, “Labor is Life,” will mean that you should work mainly with a view to providing those things. But in spite of the fact that it seems so natural to work for such things Jesus said to the Jews in John 6:27, ‘Labour not for the meat which perisheth.’ And of course Jesus didn’t mean it is just food that’s ruled out, but clothes and homes and cars are okay. Anything that perishes, anything that wears out, anything of no eternal worth—all that is implied in “food that perishes.” And we are not to labor for food. Do not labor for house. Do not labor for clothes, car, appliances, books, sporting gear, etc.” —John Piper
John 6:22 ¶ The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;
23 (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
1. Loafers, 3 kinds of “loafers”
A. lazy loafers (they were looking for a free lunch)
B. living for loaves “loafers”
C. lotto loafers
A. lazy loafers (they were looking for a free lunch)
Jesus sees through them and exposes their motives and rebukes them for their sins. All they want is a “meal ticket.”
I love the story of the old man in the Smoky mountains. A number of years ago, some hogs escaped in a romote area of the mountains. Over a period of several generations, these hogs became wilder and wilder, until they were a menace to anyone who crossed their paths. A number of skilled hunters tried to locate and kill them, but the hogs were able to elude the efforts of the best hunters in the area.
One day an old man, leading a small donkey pulling a cart, came into the village closest to the habitat of these wild hogs. The cart was loaded with lumber and grain. The local citizens were curious about where the man was going and what he was going to do. He told them he had “come to catch them wild hogs.” They scoffed, because no one believed the old man could accomplish what the local hunters were unable to do. But, two months later, the old man returned to the village and told the citizens the hogs were trapped in a pen near the top of the mountain.
Then he explained how he caught them. “First thing I done was find the spot where the hogs came to eat. Then I baited me a trap by puttin a little grain right in the middle of the clearin. Them hogs was scared off at first but curiosity finally got to ‘em and the old boar that led them started sniffin’ around. When he took the first bite the others joined in and I knew right then I had ‘em. Next day I put some more grain out there and laid one plank a few feet away. That plank kinda spooked ‘em for awhile, but that “free lunch” was a powerful appeal so it wasn’t long fore they were back eatin. Them hogs didn’t know it but they was mine already. All I had to do was add acoupla boards each day by the grain they wanted until I had ever’thing I needed for my trap. Then I dug a hole and put up my first corner post. Ever’time I added something they’d stay away a spell but finally they’d come back to git “somethin for nothing.” When the pen was built and the trap door was ready, the habit of gittin’ what they wanted without working for it drove ‘em right int the pen and I sprung the trap. It was real easy after I got ‘em coming for the “free lunch.”
The story is true and its point quite simple. When you make an animal dependent upon man for his food, you take away his resourcefulness and he’s in trouble. The same is true of man. If you want to create a cripple, just give a man a pair of crutches for a few months—or give him a “free lunch” long enough for him to get in the habit of getting something for nothing. —Zig Ziglar
They witnessed the miracle but did not grasp the meaning, nor did they come to faith in Jesus as God’s Messiah. They have been given a free meal, and they want more of the same.
∙ What do we want Christ for and what do we want out of life?
∙ And we are only interested in God for the prosperity He offers.
B. Living for loaves “loafers”
John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
Barbara Hutton whose death on May 21, 1979, made the obituary column of Time magazine, died at the age of 66, a celebrity. She was the granddaughter of F. W. Woolworth, and at the age of twelve she inherited $25 million, a fabulous fortune in those days. But her money did not make her happy, nor did her marriages. She married seven husbands, among them a Laotian prince, a Lithuanian prince, a Russian prince, a Prussian count, and a Hollywood film star. She was plagued with sickness. Her illnesses ranged from kidney disease to cataracts. She died of a heart attack. The last years of her life found her a recluse, often bedridden, weighing only eighty pounds. The newspapers used to call her a “poor little rich girl.” Happiness is not to be found in marriage or in money. Something else is needed: True happiness cannot be divorced from God. Peace, harmony, and order have their center in God.
We live in a covetous society. We all want more which is really the meaning of the Greek word for covetous. When one interviewer asked a prominently wealthy man what it would take to make him happy, he received a quick answer— “Just a little bit more.”
C. lotto “loafer”
The definition of gambling is this: the act of risking what is yours in order to get what belongs to another with nothing given in return.
Gambling has a great appeal because when one gambles, he is craving possession of something that belongs to someone else.
∙ If there was no desire, then gambling would fail as a recreation for most people.
∙ There is another word to describe this desire:
covetousness
According to Webster’s Dictionary, to covet is “to crave possession of that which belongs to someone else.”
∙ Gambling is the very spirit of covetousness which the Bible condemns.
∙ Covetousness says things satisfy. “If I only had $1M”
“Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15)
Col. 3:5 “...and covetousness, which is idolatry. . .”
“. . . At the root of wanting a windfall in the first place, is a deep gnawing dissatisfaction with your current level of provision that God has made for you in your life.
Christians say, "only Christ satisfies."
Col. 3:5 “...and covetousness, which is idolatry. . .”
Gambling Violates Faith in God. Gamblers are willing to trust more in 80 Million to one odds rather than God.
I. Loafers
II. Laborers (They think that salvation is earned)
John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28 ¶ Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
∙ Jesus does not rebuke His audience for seeking “free bread,” but rather for working for bread that does not last. Jesus is offering to give them free bread forever, but it is a very different kind of “bread.”
∙ As usual in the Gospel of John, our Lord’s words are not understood correctly. They think that Jesus is encouraging them to accomplish some work that will please God, and thus they can earn eternal life. So they ask, “What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires?”
∙ Their question is a reflection of their distorted interpretation and application of the Old Testament law. They think the law spells out what God requires of them, so that through law-keeping they can earn His favor. They are wrong.
Evangelist Robert Sumner relates the story of George Polley:
When George Gibson Polley was a boy in Richmond, he hit a baseball onto the roof of a six-story building. Since with most sandlot games, it was the only ball the boys had, George promptly climbed up the outside of the building and retrieved it. This was the start of scaling buildings that eventually earned for Polley the title “Human Fly.” Before his career came to a screeching halt at the age of 29 — not from a fall, but a fatal brain tumor — George scaled the outside of more than 2,000 buildings.
He climbed the Custom House in Boston, three buildings in a single day at Hartford, and one time he made it to the thirtieth floor of the Woolworth Building in NYC (at the time the world’s tallest) before being apprehended and arrested by a policeman. It seems that he did not have a permit. Most of the time, however, everything was legal and on the up and up, with store owners hiring him for grand openings and an assortment of sales. He could earn $200 a climb — more than many men were earning in over a month during those depression days.
While I cannot say for certain now, I think it was Polley who came to my hometown on two different occasions when I was just a boy. One time it was to scale the outside of the largest department store building in the city, located at the main intersection, the Chapman-Turner Department Store. the other time was to climb a new hotel located a block away. On both occasions, I recall standing on the sidewalk across the street, open-mouthed, heart in throat, gripping tightly my father’s hand, as Polley slowly, yet confidently, climbed to the top. Since it was standard fare in his act, I assume he pretended to slip and start to fall at least a time or two during each climb, hanging by his fingertips from a ledge.
Polley’s financial success launched a number of other “human fly” careers in those bitter depression days. One of the exciting dare-devils had been announced to climb a large department store building in downtown Los Angeles. A great throng assembled to watch and the man, slowly and carefully, climbed floor after floor up the outside of the building.
When he reached a point very near the top, the crowd watched him feel above his head, both to the right and to the left, for something he could use to raise himself higher. Eventually he spotted what seemed to be a jutting brick or a piece of stone. Since it was inches beyond his reach, he ventured everything on a cat-like spring, wrapping his fingers around the object.
While the crowd below watched in horror, the human fly fell with a scream to the sidewalk and was smashed into pieces. When medical attendants pried back his fingers to see what he had clutched, they found a spider’s web! he had risked everything on what proved to be dried froth! —Robert Sumner
A humble Moravian workman asked John Wesley before his conversion the searching question, “do you hope to be saved?” “Yes I do,” replied Wesley. “On what ground do you hope for salvation?” asked the Moravian. “Because of my endeavors to serve God,” said Wesley. The Moravian made no reply. He only shook his head and walked silently away. Wesley, in speaking of the incident later said, “I thought him very uncharitable, saying in my heart. ‘Would he rob me of my endeavors?” Later, Wesley saw the light — that salvation is solely of grace, “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” or can do. He saw what his brother, Charles, saw and expressed in these words:
Could my tears forever flow,
Could my zeal no languor know,
These for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone:
In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. —W.B.K.
John 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
I. Loafers
II. Laborers
III. Lifers (Jesus wants to give eternal life)
In giving this discourse, Christ described the life that He was to give. 11x’s “eternal life, everlasting life and life”
First, He referred to it repeatedly as eternal life. When Christ offers men life, He is not offering them created life but the uncreated life that belongs to God.
Second, Christ described this life as heavenly life (verse 32). This speaks of its origin. It is life that comes down from the Father in heaven.
Third, this life is satisfying life (v. 35). The one who possesses this life will never hunger or thirst.
As Seneca, the Roman statesman once said: “Money has never yet made anyone rich.”
Readers Digest relates the story submitted by a college English teacher. Each year he begins his course with the students writing a composition in class. Each student is assigned the same topic— “What I would do if I had a million dollars!” (Most of us have written a similar composition . . . only in our minds, not on paper.) The English class consisted of Americans, immigrants, and foreign students representing five continents. For thirty minutes these collegians struggled with and scratched out a few ideas of what they would do if they had a million dollars. Finally, as time expired, one coed in exasperation marched to the front of the room, flung down two pages of scribble, and demanded, “Not enough, teacher. I gotta have another hundred thousand!”
Fourth, this life is resurrection life (v. 40). The life cannot be terminated by death but continues because of resurrection.
One particular portion of Russell H. Conwell’s book “Acres of Diamonds,” It was the story, historically true, of Ali Hafed, who, hearing about diamonds for the first time, determined that he wanted a mine of diamonds.
He owned a very large farm, orchards, grain fields, gardens. He had many investments and was wealthy and contented. One day he was visited by an ancient Buddhist priest, a wise man of sorts. They sat by the fire and the priest recounted the detailed history of creation. He concluded by saying diamonds were the most rare and valuable gems created, ‘congealed drops of sunlight,’ and if Ali had diamonds he could get anything he wanted for himself and his family.
Ali Hafed began to dream about diamonds—about how much they were worth. He became a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was disconcerted and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, ‘I want a mine of diamonds,’ and he lay awake nights.
One morning he decided to sell his farm and all he had and travel the world in search of diamonds. He collected his money, left his family in the care of a neighbor, and began his search. He traveled Palestine and Europe extensively and found nothing. At last, after his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore at Barcelona, Spain. A great tidal wave came rolling in, and the poor, discouraged, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide. He sank, never to rise again.
The man who purchased Ali Hafed’s farm led his camel to his garden brook to drink one day. As the camel put its nose into the shallow water, this new owner noticed a curious flash of light from a stone in the white sands of the stream. As he stirred up the sands with his fingers he found scores of the most beautiful gems: diamonds. This was the discovery of the most magnificent diamond mine in the history of mankind—the Golconda. The largest crown jewel diamonds in the world have come from that mine.” The Myth of the Greener Grass, p. 173
Title: Labor is Life
Outline:
I. “Loafers,” (3 kinds of loafers)
A. Lazy “Loafers”
B. Loaves “Loafers”
C. Lotto “Loafers”
II. Laborers, those hoping to work for salvation
III. “Lifers,” those accepting the gift Jesus offers.
A. Eternal Life
B. Heavenly Life (verse 32)
C. Satisfying Life (verse 35)
D. Resurrection Life (verse 40)
