He died that I might live

[0:00] Father, you know that we human beings have turned this wonderful part of the Bible into a battleground. And Father, we confess to you that we get so caught up often fighting with other Christians over what this means that we stop listening to your word.

[0:18] So Father, we ask that you would do a wonderful work in our hearts and our minds and our wills. And that Father, you would calm our minds and hearts and wills. That you would make our heart and mind and will more alive as you calm it.

[0:32] So that we might listen to what Jesus says. What he speaks to us, Father, by this part of your word written. Father, we ask that you would do this and we ask it in the precious name of Jesus, your son and our savior.

[0:47] Amen. Please be seated. So, I have sort of a love-hate relationship with superhero movies and those types of thrillers that involve some spectacular foe.

[1:01] Something, I don't know, like some giant corporation. Some evil criminal mastermind. Genius mastermind. Or just even, and or superhero movies. Because here's the thing that, like on one level I like them.

[1:13] But on the other hand, I'm almost always disappointed. Because it seems as if the way they work is that, like for 90% of the movie, or 95% of the movie, the evil criminal mastermind and his vast network, they seem to be unstoppable.

[1:31] They seem to be everywhere. They seem to be able to accomplish everything. And then for the last 5% of the movie, they can't do anything. And there's never any explanation. They just go from having power, power, power, power, to have like very little power so the good guy or a good gal can win.

[1:45] Same often with superhero movies. They have to get beat up a couple of times early on. And then for some reason, well, I don't know, like their superpowers kicked in. And it often just bugs the heck out of me when I'm watching it.

[1:58] And I've been thinking about it this week because I've had a couple of conversations in coffee shops. And that same type of inconsistency bothers a lot of people outside the Christian faith. They hear us say different things.

[2:13] And they understand everything we say, but they sort of, like I had just somebody tell me today, tell me this week, it's as if we don't catch the inconsistencies in the overarching story.

[2:28] So the text we're going to look at today actually in some ways makes it worse, but ultimately makes it better. So it'd be a great help to me if you turn in the Bible to John chapter 6. John chapter 6, verse 1.

[2:40] I began reading at verse 28 earlier. Now we're going to look at verse 1. Some of you who are longtime Christians go, oh my, John 6, that's a big battleground text. I wonder what George's view is on this.

[2:53] And that's why I prayed the prayer at the beginning. Because, well, we're going to look at the text rather than fight battles. What a unique idea. So here's how the text goes. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

[3:09] And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Just sort of pause there. That first verse, the Sea of Tiberias, that's actually one of those really interesting little things that shows that this was an eyewitness account.

[3:23] Because it wasn't a name that was used for that lake for a long time. It only started around the year 22. And so just one of those little tiny things that shows that John was probably, like, not probably, like, that it actually helps to emphasize that this biography of Jesus, because that's what we're reading, this biography of Jesus was written by somebody of the time, not later, trying to make up a story.

[3:47] Get back to verse 3. So Jesus, oh, and the other thing which is really neat is that, you know, this whole story is taking place? It has a name now that everyone here has heard of. The Golan Heights. Like a very, very controversial, war-torn, conflicted place.

[4:03] That's where this story is taking place, this first part. Anyway, verse 3. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now, the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

[4:14] And lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

[4:26] Jesus said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.

[4:39] And just sort of pause. If you're trying to figure out what on earth is a denarii, 200 denarii would be, if you take what the average Canadian wage is, 40 weeks of working.

[4:50] That's what it is. Very simple. 40 weeks of working for the average Canadian. That's 200 denarii. Verse 8. One of his disciples, Andrew Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

[5:09] Just one other thing here. The barley loaves aren't like big loaves like this. They'd be sort of like a large roll. And the other thing is that barley loave is what the poor ate.

[5:21] So this is a very poor kid, lower working class. It's what the lower working class and the poor ate. Back to this.

[5:34] Verse 9. There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now, there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number.

[5:48] It doesn't mean that there's only men there, but for whatever cultural reason, only the men sit down, the women and children stand. Not fair, but that's just the way it was back then.

[5:59] Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

[6:10] And when they had eaten their full, remember, he just had five little loaves, five rolls and two dried fish, 5,000 men, an unknown number of women and children. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.

[6:28] So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. Now, let's just pause here about this. So this is, remember I said, I began by saying that one of the things that people don't get is, from the outside, is how that we Christians don't recognize that the overarching story of the gospel doesn't seem to make sense.

[6:52] So amongst other things, the question would be, how on earth could somebody, like if you believe that really happened, how on earth could somebody like that actually die on a cross? Like, that doesn't make any sense to me.

[7:05] It's like the superhero, the supervillain, who can do everything, and then at the end, oh gosh, all my power's gone and the good guy's gone, except it's reversed. Jesus is the good guy, right? So here he says, good guy, good guy, good guy, good guy, can do all these unbelievable things.

[7:19] At least, that's what a non-Christian would say. And then, like, it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't fit together at an intuitive and at an emotional level. Now, just to make matters worse, this is a really, really interesting story.

[7:36] And it's, other than the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, it's the only miracle recorded in all four biographies of Jesus. All four of the ancient biographies record this miracle, so they saw it was very important.

[7:49] And the other thing that's really neat about it is that the way the story is told, it emphasizes the nature, it emphasizes the miracle, and it emphasizes how public the miracle was.

[8:01] So, I've never been in a refugee camp. I've never had to go to a camp where people are starving and some food comes in a truck. But if some movies are even remotely accurate, I don't know if you've seen the beginning of the movie Black Hawk Down and people are starving, and the UN brings in some food.

[8:20] And it's almost like there's a mini-riot as they're just trying to, people are clamoring to get the food. They're sort of throwing food out. And it's, see, what, it's really what Jesus does is he has the crowd, 5,000 plus, he says, all sit down.

[8:35] So they all sit down. And when they all sit down, there's no big crowd. It's not as if there's a whole riot of people trying to get food from a truck or a wagon.

[8:46] And because of that, they wouldn't see how much food was on the wagon. They wouldn't know other than the disciples if, like, where all the food was coming from because it'd be a big, it'd be just a crowd. It'd be chaotic.

[8:57] But Jesus brings calm order. They all sit down. And the only one standing is Jesus. And they would have seen Jesus stand. He would have had a basket just like this.

[9:07] And he prays. And then he starts to break the bread and give it to the disciples. And the whole crowd would just see him as he breaks the bread and gives it to disciples.

[9:19] He just keeps doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it. And the baskets go off. And now the disciples start just breaking it and doing it and doing it and doing it.

[9:31] And 5,000 men plus all the women would see in an unmistakable way that Jesus has just fed maybe 20,000 people from a meal that might fill me.

[9:44] I have a pretty big appetite. And it would have been very public. Everybody would have seen it. So what's up with that?

[9:58] What's up with that? I'm going to explain the miracle in a moment. Or how I think Christians should understand it. But what I want you to understand is this ancient biography, all four of the ancient biographies of Jesus, they all record this miracle in the same way.

[10:12] And the very nature of the miracle emphasizes that this was the most public miracle that Jesus performed in his three years of ministry. So what's up?

[10:23] How could a guy who could do that die on a cross? That's what doesn't make sense to a lot of people. In fact, part of what is at the heart of the entire Islamic rejection of the Christian faith is, amongst other things, it just does not make sense that someone who could do that would die on a cross.

[10:46] Well, the story gets even more, it gets worse, in a sense, or better, depending on how you look at it, because the very next miracle is an unbelievable miracle.

[10:57] Not an unbelievable miracle, because I believe it. It's a spectacular miracle. This is a miracle that only the apostles would have seen, although the story is told in such a way that the crowd understands that something like a miracle must have happened, but they don't know what it was.

[11:13] And this is a miracle. It's one of the second most recorded, one of the group of second most recorded miracles in the ancient biographies. Three of the ancient biographies record this miracle in different ways.

[11:24] And it continues on in verse 16. When evening came, oh sorry, go up to verse 15, and perceiving then that they were about to come and make him, take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

[11:40] See the bit of the problem? I mean, he didn't even have to use his miracle powers to avoid the crowd, so how on earth could a group of ragtag soldiers actually capture him, actually hammer him up on the cross, and actually keep him on the cross?

[11:51] Like, how on earth could that happen? So verse 16, so he withdraws to a mountain by himself. Verse 16, when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea. It's called a sea, but in many ways it's a big lake, seven by twelve miles, eleven and a half by twenty k.

[12:08] That's approximately the size of it. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

[12:21] The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, so no matter which way they'd started from, they're in the middle of the lake.

[12:32] Remember about seven miles by, seven by eleven or whatever, seven by twelve, eleven and a half k by twenty k. That's the size of the lake. They're about halfway into the lake.

[12:45] And when they, at verse 19 again, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

[12:57] And the original language is like they're terrified. They're terrified. But Jesus said to them, It is I, do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

[13:12] In other words, it went instantly. Jesus comes into the boat. He's walking on the water. He comes into the boat, and the boat now is at the shore. And you know they weren't all asleep having an hallucination because it's a huge storm.

[13:25] Okay? Like everything in this story is emphasizing that it's the claim of a spectacular miracle. And so what's up with this? How could a guy who can actually move 13 people in a boat four miles in the blink of an eye?

[13:45] A guy who can walk on water. How could he possibly die on a cross? If you could put up the first point, Andrew, that would be very, very helpful. Jesus reveals himself as the creator, the sustainer, and the recreator of all things.

[14:02] Jesus reveals himself as the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, and the recreator of all things. I don't entirely like that last one, but it sort of fits with the rhythm.

[14:14] These two miracles are quite spectacular miracles. And Jesus reveals something about who he is. He reveals it in a very public way in the first case. And he reveals it.

[14:26] What happens in this miracle is that there's more matter in the universe after the miracle than there was before. That's the claim of the text.

[14:38] Out of nothing, Jesus makes bread. Out of nothing, he makes fish. What you're seeing here is in a sense, how does the gospel of John begin?

[14:51] In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

[15:02] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And in this miracle, you are seeing the six days of creation enacted in front of them publicly.

[15:15] And you see, this is, you see, if this miracle is true, if this miracle is true, there really is a God that does exist. Things aren't just a result of random chance.

[15:28] And if God did create all things, then he doesn't, he's the one who sustains all things, and he can make more new things at any time he wants, because he's God. And that's what's revealed here.

[15:40] And the second thing is here, C.S. Lewis in his book, Miracles, has a very, he reminds Christians of a very old distinction that older writers knew. And that old distinction is that the miracles that are recorded in the Bible are of two types.

[15:55] Most of the miracles are what are called miracles of the old creation. In other words, miracles that fit in with how our created order right now is. But there's a small number of miracles, maybe just three or four, that are miracles of the new creation.

[16:08] And by that, Lewis says, they are miracles whereby for a brief moment, we see what the new heaven and the new earth will be like. Like after Jesus comes again and judges the living and the dead, and all things in this created order come to an end, and this entire created order is recreated, reborn, and made new, and we have resurrected bodies, and we walk in the garden with God in the cool of the day.

[16:36] This is one of three or four miracles in the New Testament that show us what the new, give us a bit of a glimpse of what the new heaven and the new earth will be like. And in the new heaven and the new earth, our bodies will have a very different relationship with our souls.

[16:52] And our redeemed bodies will react and live and move in this created order in a very, very different way. Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ in the new heaven and the new earth, you will walk on water.

[17:06] You will walk on water. And you know how so many times now our bodies just get in the way of being able to deal with things like love?

[17:17] Like don't we have times maybe we hear of a son or a daughter or a friend far away and they're in trouble? And don't we wish we could just be there? But we can't just be there. Like gosh, you know, it's like on the other side, it's in Vancouver, it's in the States or it's just even in Canada and we're here and our bodies just get in the way and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, in the new heaven and the new earth, your body goes from one spot to another.

[17:45] You don't have to be beamed up by Scotty. You just will it in the new heaven and the new earth. And this is, I mean on one level this makes the whole problem far more complicated and difficult for an outsider to understand how it is.

[18:01] George, if you're saying that what's being revealed here is Jesus is revealing that he's not just Jesus, that he is God, the son of God, that he is, that the naturalistic account of how things came to be is wrong and that there is in fact a creator of all things, a sustainer of all things and that the actual creator and sustainer of all things, he came and walked among us and this ancient biography is saying that it's true.

[18:27] He walked among us and that this same person who is God, the son of God, who's created all things, who walked among us is the same one who will one day make the new heaven and the new earth and he walked among us and there's not two people, there's one person and it's revealed as Jesus.

[18:45] How on earth could he die upon a cross? How on earth does that, like, what's up with that? What's up with that? So Jesus begins to explain it.

[19:01] We're going to just jump ahead, well actually no, we'll read it. Let's look at verse 22. So in the next day, John chapter 6, verse 22, in the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea, remember that they're, you know, they're on the other side of the sea, it's mountainous, they saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat.

[19:22] They'd been watching the boat and Jesus hadn't entered the boat with his disciples but his disciples had gone away alone. So other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

[19:39] So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

[19:50] See how the story sort of points to the fact that there's a miracle? But Jesus doesn't answer what's going on, like how, he doesn't tell them anything about him walking on the water or him moving a whole boat, 12 men and himself, four miles, just like that.

[20:09] He goes to the heart. He goes to the heart. Like they'd like to know a fantastic story so people would buy them beer for years. Boy, you should see what I saw.

[20:24] Really? Tell us a story again. Here, buy a round. Buy a drink for my buddy here. He's going to tell me this great story. Right? That's what they want. They want to get beer for years with a great story.

[20:36] And Jesus goes to the heart. Verse 26, Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, in other words, a miracle that reveals something, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

[20:50] Listen, these are working class men and women. In the ancient world and in many parts of the world today, people die of famine all the time. One bad crop could mean that most of you die.

[21:06] Boy, if there's a guy who can just make bread out of nothing, I want to hang out with that guy. I'm never going to die in a famine ever again. And then Jesus says, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

[21:27] For on him, God the Father has set a seal. Verse 28, then they said to him, what? Okay, okay, Jesus, listen, you're going to give me bread forever.

[21:38] Okay, what do I have to do? Very practical question. Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Okay, like, I know you're sort of a holy guy, so it probably doesn't mean getting drunk every night.

[21:51] It probably means the works of God, so what do we do? And verse 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in whom he has sent. It's a bit of a riddle. The work is, you don't work.

[22:04] You catch that? It's a bit of a riddle. You know, this is the work of God, okay? Okay, I have to say, you know, 15 Hail Marys, you know, 20 whatever, I got to go to church, I got to learn how to sing the whole Chris Tomlin playlist by memory, like, you know, you pick your stuff, you know, I, you know, what is it?

[22:26] Okay, and he says, but this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, that's not what they were asking, then what sign do you do that you, that we may see and believe you?

[22:41] What work do you perform if we're going to believe in you? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, and they quote Psalm 78, verse 24, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

[22:54] Jesus then said to him, and just before you do, I read this, but see, here's an interesting thing about signs. They just saw Jesus make, feed 20,000 people from five buns and two fish.

[23:08] But it's not enough. You see, if we set up a whole pile of criteria for God to meet, if we set up a whole pile of criteria for Jesus to meet before we believe him, our arrogance, I apologize for insulting you, but our pride is insatiable, has no end.

[23:36] The goalposts will always move. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, you fit. Okay, 20,000. Do something better than I'll believe. Do something better than I'll believe. And it just keeps moving, right?

[23:48] Because you're standing in judgment. In fact, I mean, the main problem, one of the big problems in Canada is it might have been very well 100 years ago that the average Canadian would have understood that they were under God's judgment in some vague way or very specific way and it might have bothered them.

[24:06] But very few Canadians worry about that anymore. Why? Because virtually every Canadian is in judgment on God. Will God reach my standards?

[24:18] Will he explain his intolerable views and behaviors or improve them to my satisfaction before I will believe? As, once again, C.S. Lewis said it, in the older world, most, and in many parts of the world now, they have a very, and a very easy time understanding that they, in a sense, when they die, that they go on trial before God.

[24:44] But in our day and age, God is on trial to us. So here is, they've just seen a spectacular miracle. It's not good enough. So they say to Jesus, okay, do something better.

[24:56] Verse 32, Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father, I mean, he's just giving a bit of a technical.

[25:08] It wasn't Moses who did that. God did that. And that verse that you just quoted about needing bread that comes from heaven, he's going to say, the one who's standing in front of you fulfills that scripture text.

[25:22] Listen to it again, verse 32, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave them, gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he, a person, who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

[25:41] They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. But notice here, now remember, so part of the thing which is the emotional puzzle, the intellectual, it's a bit of a puzzle for many people on the outside, the entire Muslim world, and for many, it's okay, you say that Jesus can make matter out of nothing.

[26:04] You say that he's going to create the new heaven and the new earth, he can walk on water, he can move objects in himself, and then he dies on the cross. If you could put up the next point, Andrew, that would be very helpful.

[26:16] What we see here is that Jesus comes down from heaven to give his life. In fact, as we see, how is it, you know, as we see here, because he loves me, he went to the cross to die for me.

[26:36] Because he loves me, he stayed on the cross and died for me. Because he loves me, he went to the cross to die for me. Because he loves me, he stayed on the cross and died for me.

[26:54] I just had a conversation about this week in a coffee shop. And, I mean, the person says they just have a very hard time believing.

[27:04] his experience of life is that people who are bigger than him take advantage of him. His experience of life is that his parents, he wasn't the favorite child.

[27:21] His parents had favorite children and he's a disappointment to his parents. and he's stuck in a bit of a dead-end job and he keeps getting passed over for promotion.

[27:34] And women that he's interested in don't ultimately stay with him. And his entire life is one of how people who matter pass him by or fail him.

[27:49] And so this idea that the same one who could create all things and sustain all things I could see him as I talked with him struggling with trying to get his mind around this idea that God himself would do this.

[28:04] Like, he has a very easy time believing that human beings are screwed up. In fact, he used a word that began with the word F many times in terms of describing how human beings are.

[28:16] And I tried to say to him, I tried to share with him that if you come to that realization then you know unless God does something where, I didn't use the F word, I said we're screwed.

[28:30] Like, unless God does something and that's the story here. And I said this for me and I believe there's good reasons for this, it's not just a story, a clever story to make you feel good.

[28:41] It really happened. Like it really happened. happened. And only love could explain why one who can make matter out of nothing would go to a cross, die and stay on the cross and die on the cross.

[29:02] Only love makes sense of why one who can walk on water would allow himself to be captured, mocked, put on a cross and stay on the cross.

[29:20] Only love makes sense of the inconsistency. And only a quite remarkable love for you and me makes sense of that. One of the things I shared with this person, I'll call him Bob, I said when Jesus was dying on the cross, he was thinking of you.

[29:42] He was thinking of you. He saw you. Well, okay.

[29:57] I mean, George, what's going on here? What's up? You know, I don't know what to say about this, but George, I just want to focus. I was listening when you read something earlier and doesn't Jesus go on to say something about whoever comes to me will never hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst.

[30:12] George, that doesn't make any sense. Like, George, really, you've never, you don't keep hungry. And I know, I don't, it's meaning something spiritual, but George, that actually makes it harder. Do you actually expect me to believe that if I come to Jesus, I'll never have any hunger or thirst to gain for meaning?

[30:28] Like, George, you must get depressed. Don't you get tired? Don't you get grumpy? Don't you do bad things? Like, George, that doesn't make any sense. And in fact, actually, I, if we're honest, a lot of us Christians get very uncomfortable with these next few words that Jesus says because it bothers us that our experience doesn't seem to match up with it.

[30:49] I've, over the years, had many, many conversations with people who say, maybe I'm not really a Christian because I, I feel so lonely and I, I feel defeated and this text of Jesus that I'll never hunger and thirst again.

[31:06] George, maybe I'm not a Christian. Well, let's look what Jesus says. Remember verse 34, they say, sir, give us this bread always. Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

[31:19] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. It's our memory verse for the week. I encourage you to memorize it and there's two other verses in this text we should memorize as well but just, just pause for that for a second.

[31:34] I'm going to talk about it but just listen to it again. Jesus says to them, Jesus who's revealed himself as the same as the one who's created all things.

[31:46] He is our creator. You know, it's, it's very interesting in Hollywood. What is it that Hollywood movies when they talk about cyborgs and robots coming to life, they want to meet their creator?

[32:01] I mean, these are non-Christian movies but we have this intuitive sense that if there's a creator we should connect with him. And Jesus is revealed as the creator of all things.

[32:13] He's revealed as the one who will create the new heaven and the new earth. And he says, in light of those revelations, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[32:28] But I said to you, verse 36, that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. Verse 37, another verse to memorize. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

[32:45] I will never cast out. Whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Brother and sister, I'm going to keep reading it, but brother and sister, are you depressed?

[32:57] Jesus will not cast you out. Are you defeated? He will not cast you out. Are you worried about dying? He will not cast you out. Do you feel like you are the world's worst loser?

[33:08] He will not cast you out. That's not George saying this. This is Jesus saying this. Verse 38, For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

[33:27] Verse 39, And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

[33:38] Listen to this again. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

[33:49] Verse 40, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

[34:02] That's why Jesus dies on the cross. Could you put up the next point, Andrew? Because I am a dead man walking, I need the true bread of life, so that I will not hunger, thirst, and die, but receive eternal life.

[34:19] Because I am a dead man walking, I need the true bread of life, so that I will not hunger, thirst, and die, but receive eternal life. You see, here's this thing about what it means amongst other things, that the most fundamental reason this whole thing means about the bread of heaven, never thirsting, never hungering, is that saying that if we, Jesus isn't saying, like, I'm like this new powerful drug, that, like, when you get this drug, it's like being on heroin, but you never come down, and you always have an, like, it's not a drug, he's not a drug that just overwhelms you, he makes you more human, he's going to fit you for the new heaven and the new earth, where you have body, and you dwell, and you dwell with other people for all eternity in the new heaven and the new earth, and you'll be able to walk on water, you'll be able to walk on water, you'll be able to eat, and that's the new heaven and the new earth, and it's not talking about that, and if you're interested about the, you know, the whole thing about whether this is all about communion, and you read commentaries, and whole forests have been killed to discuss whether this is referring to communion, read my blog,

[35:29] I'm not going to go there at all, read my blog about it, it's in there this week, but you know what, what is this fundamental image? What's, I looked it up this week, every culture from what I can gather has bread.

[35:41] Every culture has bread. Ancient cultures, one of the first things that they would have been able to manufacture and make was bread. Jesus doesn't say, I am the caviar of life.

[35:54] Thanks be to God. I'm not just stuff that only weird, sorry, maybe you love caviar. The idea of eating fish eggs is like just repulsive to me, okay?

[36:07] I know I have to try it, you know? He doesn't say, I am the escargot of life, or the frog legs of life, okay? Sorry, maybe you like, if you like it, good for you, if you like frog legs and escargot.

[36:19] You know, everybody has their own thing. An article newspaper recently that bugs are going to be the new thing that we're going to eat. You know, who knows, right? But what does he say? If you watch The Crown on Netflix, you'll see the Queen of England cutting bread and eating it.

[36:36] And if you were to have seen, you see shows of very, very, very poor people, they eat bread. The King eats bread, the Queen eats bread, I bet Bill Gates eats bread. Poor people eat bread.

[36:51] Bread is what everybody eats. And it's a very profound image of when everything else goes, when you lose all of your money, I mean, that you can at least afford some bread.

[37:02] In those old days, bread would have kept you alive with water. And, you know, the other image is, you know, it's as if we read this text and we're expecting certain emotional things and all of that type of stuff, but we forget the fact that apart from Christ, like, every human being dies.

[37:21] And apart from Christ, every human being dies and our death is an image and a foretaste of, in a sense, eternally dying and eternally perishing. I am not some God.

[37:34] I am not some God demanding a whole pile of emotional experiences. I act like I'm a God demanding emotional and spiritual experiences, but that's not who I am. I am a dead man walking.

[37:45] I am a cut plant. I am a cut flower. I am a dead man walking. And what does Jesus say here? I have come down from heaven to give my life for the world.

[37:56] Would you eat of me? You know what? What happens if we can eat bread? We don't die. You eat of me? I won't, you won't die. You eat of me?

[38:08] You will live eternally. I give you eternal life. You won't, I am a dead man walking. I need the true bread of life so that I will not hunger and die. I will not thirst and die, but receive eternal life.

[38:21] That's who I am. And kings need me and eat me and the poorest of the poor. And people in South Africa and people in Japan and people in Canada.

[38:43] Just one thing, just to sort of wrap it up. You know, if you haven't, you know, these words are very, very precious words. If you are here today and you have not given your life to Jesus, just listen again to verse 35.

[38:57] I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Listen to verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

[39:10] Listen to verse 39. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. Listen to verse 40. For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have, shall have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

[39:28] Friend, if you are here, come to Jesus. And here's, if you could put up the last point, Andrew, that would be really good. And there's a wonderful thing here that Jesus says. On one hand, it's completely true that you have to come to Jesus.

[39:41] On the other hand, what is also true is you actually don't come to Jesus on your own power. The Father brings you. I mean, that's why, you know, this person I was having a conversation with this week, Bob, he asked me how it is that I came to faith and I told him that it was as if for a long, long time, for almost a year, I could feel that God was just calling me and urging me and pushing me to give my life to Jesus and I was just resisting it and resisting it and resisting it.

[40:16] And what we find, and this is such a wonderful comfort, you know, if it was just up to me to come to Jesus then maybe I'll turn away. If it's just up to me to come to Jesus then what happens when I feel like a loser?

[40:27] What happens when I feel sick? What helps when I'm dying? What happens if I have emotional problems? Like, maybe I'll turn away from Jesus but what this text is saying us is that, yes, on one hand, I give my will and I say to Jesus, I come to you, I believe in you.

[40:44] Be my Savior and my Lord. Be that bread of heaven that I might eat of you and I will never hunger and never thirst and I will have eternal life. I come to you, Jesus.

[40:56] But we don't just come to Jesus, it's the Father who carries us and he'll never let us go and once he has us in his hand and brings us to Jesus, he doesn't let us go and he will see that he will raise us up at the end, the last day.

[41:12] That's why I've put up there on the screen, remember, Christian, that you did not merely believe in Jesus and come to him. God the Father himself gave you to Jesus and brought you to him.

[41:23] I invite you to stand, please. Thank you. And all of us in different ways have some business to do with Jesus this morning.

[41:42] For some of us, it might just be, Father, thank you so much that my salvation doesn't depend upon me feeling so good, but that you carry me to Jesus and you carry me throughout my life and you will carry me into eternity to be with you forever.

[41:59] And that might be a response. And for some of us, it might be, Jesus, help me to believe in you. I want you to be that bread of heaven that gives me eternal life. I want the Father to carry me to you and say that with your own words.

[42:13] There's no better time than now to just say that with your own words. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you, Father, that he reveals that you are the creator of all things, that you exist, that you brought all things into being, that you sustain all things into being.

[42:33] And thank you, Father, that he reveals a little bit of what it will be like to have our resurrection bodies in the new heaven and the new earth. And Father, for those of us who are here in Jesus, fan into flame within us a longing and yearning to see you, to know you, to be with you forever.

[42:50] Fan into flame within us a greater longing and yearning to know you and to be known by you, Father. And Father, for any who are here who have not yet given their lives to Jesus, Father, may your Holy Spirit move deeply within them that they might give their lives to Jesus.

[43:05] And if some have today for the first time, Father, pour out your Holy Spirit and your joy upon them. And all these things we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.