The Source Of Spiritual Satisfaction Series

READ the whole passage.

I read verse 36 and have to wonder how many people today would be the same way. If Jesus Christ walked into this sanctuary right now and told us who He was, would we believe or would we require a sign. It makes me wonder how many people REALLY believe that Jesus is a real person and not just someone we read about in the book we call the Bible. We hear Jesus taught and preached, but many still yearn to have a sign or to SEE a miracle before they will truly believe. If you don’t think that is the case, then why are these miracle healers doing so well. Why do they draw such a big crowd when Jesus has already told us that healing comes from the Lord? What is it going to take to satisfy people? If Jesus isn’t the source, then just what IS the source of these people’s spiritual satisfaction?

Tonight we see that the source of Spiritual satisfaction is Jesus. If we are going to receive spiritual nourishment, it will be from Jesus. He is the only Bread that can feed our great hunger. Let’s break down this passage.

READ 30-31. Jesus had just told these people that it wasn’t WORKS (plural) that God required but one WORK (singular) and that was to simply believe in the One God had sent. They turn right around and ask Jesus what kind of sign is He going to give them to prove that He is the One God has sent.

So in verses 27 & 29 Jesus has claimed to be the Son of Man, the One who feeds man, who gives man bread which gives eternal life. He had just claimed the He was the One whom God had sealed, the One whom God had sent into the world, the One upon whom men were to believe. But the people demanded proof. This reveals a couple of things about the nature of man.

1. Man focuses on the physical and material. We already talked about that last time. Man, even today, will still ignore all the signs, even the miracles of God which surround him. Christ has just miraculously fed this crowd, yet the crowd ignored the witness of that particular sign. It wasn’t enough. They wanted more.

Moses had fed Israel for 40 years in the wilderness. Christ had fed them only once. Moses had fed Israel with manna falling out of the sky from heaven. Christ had merely multiplied bread from a few loaves in His hands.

2. Another revealing fact about man is that man demands that he first see, then he will believe. That is contrary to true faith. That’s not the way faith works. One must first believe, then he will see.

Faith is not fate. It’s a matter of the heart, a matter of how the heart must relate to others. If a person doesn’t believe in you, they don’t see. They might ask all they want, but it’s unlikely that you will do what they ask if you know that they really don’t believe you or trust you.

But if they believe and trust you, you will usually do whatever they ask. In the same way man must first believe God, then he sees. Faith must precede sight. Believe God and He will fulfill the desires of your heart.

In our story, the people’s complaint was twofold.

1. Christ had not fed them enough—not enough to prove that HE was who He claimed to be.

2. Christ had not fed them in the right way, not given them bread from heaven to eat.

We’re the same way. We never have enough. We crave and crave and are never really satisfied. Even in dealing with God, man never has enough evidence or proof to believe.

Man always wants to tell God how to act and deal with him and his life. Man wants his needs met in certain ways. It’s not enough for God to meet man’s needs. Man wants his needs met like he wants. He tries to dictate how God is to act. So much “religion” is nothing more than this, nothing more that man trying to spell out how God is to act and behave toward him.

READ 32. Jesus makes two strong points here.

1. Man cannot provide true bread, that is, true satisfaction. Moses wasn’t the one who gave Israel the manna from heaven. It was God. This tells us that WE have to do something if we want our hunger filled, if we want to be truly satisfied, if we want to be content, or comfortable, or at peace. So a person must look beyond other people and the things of this world to be truly satisfied. No man or thing of this world possesses the true bread.