“In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim’s Fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.
The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.
The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770’s) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.
In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.”
(history of Thanksgiving copied from www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/story.htm)
Now I’ve stated in the past that I do not preach ‘theme sermons’. Christmas and Easter, of course, deserve special sermons commemorating our Lord’s birth and certainly, His death and resurrection. Otherwise, the holidays and special days set aside by society do not deserve recognition from the pulpit. The task of the preacher is to illuminate the word of God; not “Hallmark’s” calendar.
But I wanted to share this brief history of the Thanksgiving celebration with you this morning, to contrast its origins with what has become of that celebration in our present day.
In large and increasing circles, the word ‘thanksgiving’ is hardly even used anymore. It’s “Turkey Day”, at school, on the news, in the work place, in the stores. Unless there are small children in the household, who come home from school or church with cutouts of chubby pilgrims and badly colored Indians accompanying a one page history lesson, most people can breeze through Thanksgiving Day anymore without having to give it’s original purpose even a passing thought.
It’s a day of overeating, prefaced and post-scripted by shameless bragging about overeating; football, rented movies; and these are the best parts. In many households Thanksgiving Day inevitably means enduring the company of relatives one hopes only to see one day per year, old family squabbles dredged up from the muck of a history never confronted properly and put to rest, drunkenness by mid afternoon, and followed by a Friday of antacids, ibuprofen and cold turkey sandwiches.
Now, I’m not trying to bum anyone out here. And I don’t wish to put a damper on anyone’s holiday. I hope everyone here has a very wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year; and I hope that as you celebrate you will give sincere thanks to our God for His fathomless bounty. I hope you will eat without guilt, and digest without discomfort. I hope you will thoroughly enjoy your company, whether it be family or friends, and whether you watch football, or play board games, or simply take an afternoon nap after the table has been cleared and the kids have all run off to play, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.
The reason I’ve spent all of this time talking about this up-coming celebration, is because it is a day that, with all it’s other trappings, primarily centers around the stomach.
And, not so coincidentally, that is the problem of these very excited folks in John chapter 6.
Let’s glance back for just a minute and think about the events that immediately precede the verses of our study today.
Jesus has miraculously fed the five thousand. We’re all familiar with that story; some more than others. If you’ve been in the church since childhood, you heard it at least once a year in Sunday School. If you came to the Lord as an adult, you’ve surely heard at least one sermon, or read at least one article about it in one of the many Christian periodicals available. Maybe you’ve never heard of the account except to see a dramatization of it in one of the movies that has been made about the life of Jesus.
He has sat down with His disciples on a country hillside. The people are gathering there from villages all around, and I want you to note that in verse 2 of chapter six, John specifically states that they followed Him there because of the signs they had seen Him performing, particularly in the healing of the sick.
Jesus looks up, and seeing this great multitude He is characteristically sensitive to their immediate need. In His great compassion He takes the few loaves and fishes being carried there by a small boy, and after blessing the food He begins to distribute it to the multitude and miraculously feeds five thousand men, along with the women and children who were there.
Skipping ahead somewhat; night comes, the disciples get into a boat to cross the sea of Galilee, enroute to Capernaum. About 4 miles out, and with a storm kicking up, Jesus comes walking to them on the surface of the water.
Isn’t it interesting, that verse 21 says that as he stepped into the boat, “...immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going”. A small part of this miracle that seems to go largely unnoticed by many who teach on this passage.
The next morning reveals a rather humorous picture. These large crowds who Jesus had fed the day before engage in a little bit of Hercule Poirot deductive reasoning. “Hmmm... the disciples got into a boat and left. We saw them. Jesus was off somewhere by Himself, after we tried to take Him by force and make Him King, so we know He wasn’t in the boat. And look, there are no other boats missing this morning, but Jesus isn’t around. So what do we do?”
“Well, when in doubt, follow the followers. The disciples rowed off toward Capernaum. Grab a boat! Let’s go!”
And this multitude of people scramble into all these small boats that have just rowed in from somewhere, and go paddling like mad toward Capernaum.
When they get there they find Jesus, and they ask Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”
Have you ever wondered what it would be like, to be able to read people’s minds? To know their thoughts and their true feelings, despite what’s coming out of their mouths?
Surely, every child goes through a phase of thinking that would be so cool... to be able to read minds...
Actually, we couldn’t handle that. I think I’d be a pretty whipped puppy if I was aware of every thought anyone had of me.
But Jesus could handle it. He knew what was in men’s hearts and minds, and it’s rather funny to see how that knowledge often brought Him to respond to people.
At the end of John chapter 2 we’re told that even though many believed in His name, He, in His wisdom and knowledge of their hearts, wasn’t falling for it. If I was suddenly the talk of Montrose because someone was impressed with my preaching and went all over bragging me up, and one day we suddenly had 400 people here, I might need a little deflating to keep me earthbound. And my wife would be faithful to do that, and I would hope that some of you would also.
But not Jesus. Humility was no struggle for Him. He had already faced the temptation to make Himself king, in the wilderness, tempted by the tempter himself. But he knew men’s hearts, and He knew even here, early in His ministry, that in the end they would all go away and leave Him to hang alone.
Then we go to John 3 and see Nicodemus, hinting that he’d like to know how Jesus did His miracles, and perhaps hear a claim of deity from His own lips. “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him”.
But Jesus, knowing Nicodemus’s true thoughts and actual need, seemingly ignores the question. “...unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven”
and He enters into the discourse that is one of the most frequently preached and taught passages of the bible.
Back in John 6 now, standing before this multitude that has followed Him across the Sea to Capernaum, Jesus knows their hearts as well. They have been given a sign, yet they want a sign. They’ve been fed, but they’ve failed to recognize the true Bread from Heaven.
Their impertinent self-absorption brings them to grope for the gift and ignore the giver.
Listen to the words of Ravi Zacharias, from his book, “Jesus Among Other Gods”:
“Capturing the beauty of the conversion of the water into wine, the poet Alexander Pope said, ‘The conscious water saw its Master and blushed’. That sublime description could be reworked to explain each one of these miracles. Was it any different in principle for a broken body to mend at the command of its Maker? Was it far-fetched for the Creator of the universe, who fashioned matter out of nothing, to multiply bread for the crowd? Was it not within the power of the One who called all the molecules into existence to interlock them that they might bear His footsteps (on top of the water)? Why were they not making that connection?” -parenthesis mine-
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Again, Jesus, knowing what was in men, cuts to the chase. “...you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.”
You’ve already seen at least one miracle. You saw Me multiply the loaves and the fish. You’ve surmised that I somehow miraculously came to Capernaum, because you know I didn’t get into any boat and to walk around the sea would take long.
You have seen enough and experienced enough in the past twenty four hours, to give you more than enough cause to believe on Me from the heart, and be filled in a way that would assuage your spiritual hunger forever; but you can’t get past your stomach.
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the movie, “Jerry McGuire”, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character, and then later, Tom Cruise’s character (McGuire) responded to business propositions with the challenge,
“Show me the money”.
The idea being demonstrated was that talk was just talk; no matter how promising the venture sounded, no matter how well it was presented, the bottom line was the money.
As I read the 6th chapter of John’s gospel and witness the various reactions of the people listening to Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life, I can’t help being reminded of this movie and seeing a striking parallel in attitude.
Jesus has offered the greatest, most fulfilling and rewarding proposition ever, in exhorting them to work for the food that does not perish. Food that “...endures to eternal life...”, and all the work they have to do for it, is to believe in Him whom God has sent.
But their reaction is, “Show me the bread”. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. What do you give? What sign do you do, to convince us? You fed us yesterday, but we’re hungry again! Show us the bread!
My friends, the flesh minds the things of the flesh, and cannot comprehend the Spirit.
Standing right in front of them, was Eternal Life, Himself. The Bread which comes down from heaven, given by the Father. But from Him they only wanted immediate gratification. A full belly.
They yearned for bread, while rejecting the Bread (capital B).
They wanted the miracle, while rejecting the Miracle worker.
They were hungry for the temporal, but had no interest in the eternal.
The Passover was at hand. They would gather with friends and family and engage in the traditions and rituals of religion; eating the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread, venerating Moses the lawgiver, yet unable to recognize that they had been face to face with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now I’ve spent a great deal of time today, establishing that this multitude of people, at this point of the ministry of Jesus Christ just weren’t getting the picture. They had no understanding or comprehension of spiritual things, and the things of God, and could only think of their perceived immediate, physical needs.
But if any passage in the gospels confirms the assertion of the faith principle; that without it one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, certainly, it is well established in John chapter 6. And this is the point I want you to see clearly today.
All of the scoffings and challenges of an unbelieving world are answered right here.
Everything that mankind needs to know to be rescued from eternal damnation and find rest and completion in his God, is contained right here. But they couldn’t see because they were using eyes of flesh. They couldn’t receive because they would not exercise the principle of simple faith, to partake of the Bread that satisfies forever.
So it is with Christ-less humanity of all cultures in all times.
They’ll say, ‘If God is real, why doesn’t He stop the suffering in the world? Why doesn’t He do something about the injustices? Why doesn’t He meet my physical needs? Why do I have pain? Where is He when life is unfair?’ And with these words freshly rolling off their lips, they will sit down to a roast turkey and all the trimmings, filled with self-congratulation that they have provided this feast for themselves and their family, and never give a moment’s thought to the One who truly set their table.
But can the church justifiably point a finger and criticize the dead for their lack of faith and their ‘show me the bread’ approach to life?
Are we not guilty of seeking the gift instead of the Giver Himself, when we get wrapped up in the traditions and rituals of religion as though they were the goal and the end?
Praying earnestly for the Lord’s blessing on our efforts, and for immediate gratification in the form of success, as the world would measure success, in our church building and programs?
Believer here today, if there is one single and simple message that Jesus had for them and for us in this discourse on the Bread of life, it is that faith ~ what He is talking about here in verse 29 when He says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”, is being more concerned with having the Bread of Life in us, than getting what He can give us.
It is the message that goes contrary to flesh in every way. It is why in the end we see that many of them ceased following Him after that day.
In truth, it is the message that so many churches have drifted away from and continue to turn from on an ever increasing scale, because it doesn’t draw the crowds and it offends the carnal nature of many a churchgoer.
The message is that our most primary and most significant spiritual needs will never be met until we come to that place of consuming the Bread of Life, content and satisfied with Him to the point that the bread that perishes no longer holds any attraction for us. Filling ourselves with Him until doing the Father’s will is more filling and satisfying than all the comforts of the flesh.
Until we come to a place of understanding and even empathizing with Jesus when He says, “I have food that you do not know about”.
The faithless masses wanted only the bread that perishes, and subsequently went away hungry.
The disciples, exercising simple faith and more concerned with the Giver than the gift, were able to say with conviction, “...You are the Holy One of God”; and subsequently were filled to overflowing.
Are you empty? Are you weary and sad and unfulfilled? Do you tire of the struggle and sometimes wonder if it’s really worth all the effort, to come to church and continue in the faith? If so, then perhaps you’ve been focused on the wrong sources for your filling. Consume Him and be consumed by Him. Be filled with the food that endures to eternal life. It is supplied by the Father in the Son, and satisfies with a satisfaction that the world can never hope to offer.
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven” (says Jesus), “...if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever...”
