Our passage today is John chapter 6, verse 1 to 40.
Please follow along in your Bibles or on the screen.
! If it's the Church Bible, it's page 837.
After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was following him.
Because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
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.
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?
He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him,
Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
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 five thousand in number.
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.
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,
Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said,
This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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.
The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
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.
But he 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.
On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples,
but that his disciples had gone away alone.
Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread,
after the Lord had given thanks.
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?
Jesus answered them,
Truly, truly, I say to you,
you are seeking me not because you saw signs,
but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Do not work for food that perishes,
but for the food that endures to eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give to you.
For on him God the Father has set his seal.
Then they said to him,
What must we do to be doing the works of God?
Jesus answered them,
This is the work of God,
that you believe in him whom he has sent.
So they said to him,
Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
What work do you perform?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness,
as it is written,
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
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 gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.
They said to him,
Sir, give us this bread always.
Jesus said to them,
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
But I said to you that you have seen me,
and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
For I have come down from heaven,
not to do my own will,
but the will of him who sent me.
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.
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.
This is the word of God.
Amen.
Okay, great.
Thank you, Albert and Karen.
Hey, let's pray,
and then we're going to dive into this passage.
So join me in prayer.
Father God, as we come to your word,
we want to be fed.
What a passage that tells us,
Jesus, you want to feed our souls.
God, we want to be fed by you this morning.
We want to hear you speaking to us.
God, we don't just want to hear interesting things.
We don't just want a prep talk on how to get through life.
We want God to meet with you, the living God,
in your living word.
We know, God, your word is living and active.
It means you're present in your word,
and you're doing stuff.
So God, why don't you do stuff in our hearts?
Why don't you open our hearts to see you,
to feast in you,
to delight in you,
to savor you.
God, we hear your invitation,
and as I to come,
those who are hungry and thirsty,
to eat and drink.
Lord, we want to respond to that.
And so help us, we pray,
in your good and gracious name.
Amen.
Okay, well, I forgot to greet you.
If you are new to Watermark,
my name's Kevin,
and it's great to have you with us.
Welcome.
We are continuing to work through John's Gospel,
and John's Gospel is all about belief in Jesus,
how and why we can believe in Jesus.
And you remember,
at the end of John's Gospel,
John actually tells us the whole reason,
why he wrote this long book.
These days,
it might not feel long for us,
but in those days,
all the writing on papyrus,
papyrus was very expensive.
Why did John go through all this effort,
and all this cost and expense?
He tells us,
I've written these things,
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God,
and by believing,
experience life in His name.
That's what John wants,
and that's what we want.
We want to encounter Jesus,
and experience life in His name.
Whether you've been a follower of Jesus for many years,
or you are still a spiritual seeker,
that's what John wants,
and that's what we want.
And so today,
we are in chapter 6,
and we're continuing our discussion.
And like much of John's Gospel,
there's a miracle,
and what follows the miracle is a teaching,
a discourse,
a discussion.
And like much of John's Gospel,
the miracle is not the main thing,
actually the discussion,
the teaching that follows,
is what John really wants us to focus on.
And so,
let's take a look and see what happens here.
Now,
the context is important.
Context is everything,
right?
And so,
look at what John tells us in verse 4.
He says,
Now the Passover,
the feast of the Jews,
was at hand.
That's really important.
In John's Gospel,
many of these chapters,
all revolve around a different feast.
And the feast informs what's the message,
what's going on here.
And so,
in chapter 6,
it's all about the Passover.
Now,
what is the Passover?
The Passover was the most sacred
and momentous celebration
in the history of Israel.
It was the main feast
that everyone would celebrate.
It's kind of like
Lunar New Year for us Asians,
right?
Everyone would gather
and come together.
Us Asians,
you know.
Why is that so funny?
Don't I look Chinese?
Right?
Okay.
You Asians,
fine.
For us Asians,
okay,
so Lunar New Year,
it's when everyone gathers together
and they celebrate
God's deliverance.
In their case,
out of Egypt,
deliverance from Egypt.
You'll remember,
the reason is called the Passover,
is God's people were slaves in Egypt
and God's judgment comes on
their enemies,
the Egyptians,
but His judgment passes over
God's people.
And so they are saved,
they're delivered,
they are then rescued,
they leave Egypt.
And when they leave Egypt,
the Exodus,
they then pass through the sea,
the Red Sea,
on dry ground.
They go into the wilderness
and they're fed in the wilderness
with bread
on the way to the promised land.
And God provides them
and cares for them.
And as they come out of Egypt,
this Passover is the defining feature
of the nation of Israel.
It's kind of their national identity.
Later on,
God says to him,
two things must happen.
You must reset your calendars.
This is the first month
of the first year
of your new nation.
It's kind of like as a nation,
you've been reborn.
But the other thing he says is this.
He says that every Israelite must,
this is a statutory holiday,
every Israelite must celebrate Passover
and no foreigners are allowed
to celebrate it.
Because this is what it means
to be the people of God,
that I have delivered you,
I've saved you,
I've rescued you.
God says,
I am the rescuing,
delivering,
saving God.
I'm the Exodus God.
I'm the Passover God.
And now John tells us
it's the week of Passover
or Passover is at hand.
And so everybody's thinking about this.
Everyone's preparing.
Everybody's celebrating,
getting ready to celebrate
God's salvation,
God's deliverance of his people.
Now in this passage,
I want us to think about three,
think about in three sections.
Okay.
The miracles of Jesus,
the call of Jesus
or the challenge of Jesus
and the promises of Jesus.
Okay.
Three very simple things.
So let's dive in and look,
the miracles of Jesus.
So everybody's thinking about Passover
and they're getting ready for it.
But of course,
Jesus is also a pretty big attraction.
And so verse two says,
a large crowd was following him
because they saw the signs.
That's the miracles
that he was doing on the sick.
And so crowds are following Jesus
and it's been a long day.
It's been a tiring day.
They're all exhausted.
And Jesus,
knowing exactly what he's going to do,
says to one of the disciples
who's from that area,
Oh, Philip, by the way,
can you just make sure
we've got enough food
to feed these 5,000 people?
And it's a ridiculous question
because they don't have enough food.
There's no shops nearby.
They're in the wilderness
and they don't have enough money for it.
And so Philip is a bit stomach.
He has no solution
and they don't have enough food
or money.
And one of the disciples,
Andrew,
it comes up with a rather silly idea.
He says,
Oh, I saw a boy
who brought his lunchbox.
He's got five loaves
and two fish.
But then he quickly concludes,
what are they for so many?
And Jesus performs
this amazing miracle.
He feeds
more than 5,000 people.
When it says 5,000,
that was probably counting.
5,000 men
means 5,000 households.
So maybe 10,
maybe 15,000 people.
Jesus feeds them
and there's abundant leftover.
And as someone in our CG said recently,
the point of this
is that Jesus provides abundantly
in scarcity.
And so the people
start to make the connection.
Verse 14,
they say,
when the people saw
the sign that he had done,
they said,
this is indeed the prophet
who's come to the world.
They're putting two and two together
and they're saying,
this guy must be
some kind of Messiah.
Maybe he's the Messiah,
the one we've been waiting for.
But the problem is
what they think
a Messiah means
is a political Messiah.
A Messiah is going to come
deliver them from their enemies,
the Romans,
and bring freedom to Israel.
But that's not who Jesus is.
That's not what he's come to do.
So look at verse 15.
It says,
perceiving then
they were about to come
and take him by force
and make him king,
Jesus withdrew
to the mountains by himself.
So Jesus evades their attempts
to crown him as king
and disappears into the mountains.
And then Jesus sends
his disciples across the lake.
He wants a night
just in prayer with his father.
So he sends the disciples
across the lake
on the other side
while he spends time alone.
But in the middle of the night
he does the second miraculous thing.
He literally walks on the water.
The gospel calls it
the sea,
the Sea of Galilee.
He walks across it
and the storm-tossed waves,
there's chaos all around
and Jesus goes to the disciples
and they're petrified
and they think it's a ghost.
And Jesus says,
do not be afraid,
it is I.
And they take him into the boat
and immediately it says
they received him into the boat
and their hearts were glad
to take him in
and they are on the other side.
Now, did this really happen?
Well, the Bible claims
that it really happened.
We shouldn't just read this poetically
or allegorically.
The Bible claims this happens.
And that, of course,
is only true
if Jesus really is who said he is.
And that's part of the point.
This is a very unusual story.
I don't know how many of you
have walked on water.
I certainly have not.
But the point is
this should make us sit up
and think,
who is this man?
Who is Jesus?
That he can do these kinds of things.
And, of course,
the claim of the Bible
is that he's not an ordinary man.
He is unusual.
He is nothing less
than the Son of God.
And that's part of what
John wants us to think about.
But why are these miracles?
And why are these miracles
at this point in time?
What is John wanting to show us?
What is the message
that John wants us to see?
John's told us
that it's Passover.
But how do these connect?
Let's think about this.
Passover is a time
when God's people
are ready to celebrate
God's great big rescue of them
from their slavery,
from their Egypt.
He brought them out of Egypt.
He caused them
to cross the Red Sea
on dry ground.
And then he fed them
with bread in the wilderness.
And here there are
three elements to Passover.
There's the Passover lamb
who's going to die
so they can be saved.
There's the crossing
the Red Sea
in the wilderness.
And there is the feeding
crossing the Red Sea
and dry ground
and then the feeding
in the wilderness.
And Jesus is pulling
all these strings together
and he's saying,
can't you see
I am the Passover God?
I'm going to walk
on the water
in a sense dry ground.
I'm going to feed you
in the wilderness.
There's one element
that's missing.
That's the Passover lamb.
That's going to come
a little later.
But Jesus is pulling
in all the elements
of Passover,
all the things
that are in the back
of their mind
that they're thinking about.
And Jesus is saying,
this is me.
I am the Exodus God.
I'm the rescuing God.
I'm the saving God.
I am the great I am.
Remember the Exodus
is God's great
signature accomplishment.
Right?
It's the one thing
that defines him
throughout the whole
of the Old Testament.
Almost every chapter
is remember the Exodus.
Remember how I saved you.
Remember how I delivered you.
I am the saving God.
I'm the rescuing God.
I'm the Passover God.
And Jesus comes
and says,
this is me.
I am the rescuing God.
I'm the Passover God.
Jesus will later say,
I'm the Passover lamb,
the one who will die
for the sins of the world.
And Jesus says,
I'm the one who will
bring you through the sea.
I'm the one who will
provide for you
in the wilderness.
I'm the one who will
bring you to the promised land,
the other side.
Except they don't quite get it,
do they?
So look at verse 22.
They don't quite understand.
And so the next day
they come to him.
They are looking for him.
And they say,
Jesus, where are you?
How did you come here?
Verse 25.
And Jesus,
verse 26,
says to them,
truly, truly,
I say to you,
you seek me,
not because you saw the signs
and therefore believed,
but because you ate
your fill of the loaves.
And this really
is the heart of the problem.
Jesus is diagnosing
their problem.
Why do they misunderstand him?
Well, the reason is
because Jesus says,
you coming to me
to have your physical needs met,
you coming to have
your material needs met,
you coming to me
because you were hungry
and I filled your stomachs,
but actually,
so now you're coming back
for more,
but what you've missed
is that's not what I'm about.
I'm wanting to just,
not just meet your material needs,
your hunger,
I'm here to meet
your real need.
I'm here to meet
your spiritual need.
Jesus says,
you coming to me
to do,
just to help you
get along in life,
but I've actually
come to do for you
what you cannot do
for yourself.
I'm here to save you.
I'm here to rescue you
from death.
I'm here to give you life.
Jesus says,
you coming to me
because,
not because you saw
the signs and believed,
but because you ate
your food,
your stomachs
were full of food.
And so verse 27,
Jesus says,
do not work for the food
that perishes,
but for the food
that endures
to eternal life.
Food that I
can give you.
And that's Jesus' point.
Jesus says,
you can come here
all day.
I can provide for your needs.
I can give you food.
I can give you drink.
I can give you a job.
But that won't last
because I'm not just
the bread and water God.
I'm the Exodus God.
I haven't come just
to provide for you materially.
I've come to provide
for your greatest need,
your deepest need.
I've come to save you deeply.
And friends,
that's just as challenging
for us in 21st century Hong Kong
as it was in
first century Israel.
The area where Jesus was,
Capernaum,
it's up north of Israel,
it's a rather poor area.
They are living
by subsistence farming,
kind of hand to mouth.
They are working the ground
to getting their food
and eating of it.
It's not a very wealthy area.
And here are people,
they are working hard,
and here comes
a miracle worker,
and they're thinking,
here's somebody
who can rescue us
from hard work.
Finally,
somebody has come
that can give us food.
We don't need to work
the ground that hard.
Someone can save us
from this back-breaking work.
Finally,
the gods are shining down on us.
Jesus,
the miracle worker,
can come and solve
all our problems.
And Jesus says,
that's not who I am.
I'm not the genie
in the bottle.
I am the son of God.
And Jesus hasn't come
just to relieve us.
He's come to rescue us
from our sin.
Jesus says,
I haven't come
just to serve your needs.
I've come to save you
from hell and judgment forever.
Jesus says,
I haven't come
just to lift you up.
I've come to give you
a whole new life.
Will you believe in me?
And this is the call.
This is the challenge
of Jesus.
That Jesus,
yes,
he's a miracle worker.
Yes,
he's powerful.
Yes,
he can solve our problems.
But will we come to him
for the real reason
why he's come to us?
Not just to lift us up
and improve our lives,
but to save us.
And here are people
that are seeking out Jesus
because they want the blessing,
not because they see
the great need for him.
Friends,
we can do the same.
We want a job.
We want to get
into a decent college.
We want our kids
to get into a decent college.
We want a spouse.
We want to fall pregnant
and have children.
We want that promotion.
And so we serve
and we work
and we come to church
and we give
and we do all the things
and then we say,
okay,
Jesus,
I've played my part.
Where's my miracle?
And Jesus says,
that's not who I am.
That's not how I've come.
Jesus says,
I'm not the get into college,
God.
I'm not the find a spouse,
God.
I'm not the full pregnant,
God,
as good as all those things may be.
I'm the rescuing God.
I'm the saving God.
I'm the Passover God.
I am the Exodus God.
I am the great.
I am.
And David actually wrestles with us
in Psalm chapter four.
In Psalm four,
David writes this.
He says,
there are many who say to us,
who will show us some good?
Why don't you lift up
the light of your face
upon us,
oh Lord?
So,
so David says,
there are many people
and,
and things are hard
and they cried and they say,
God,
where are you?
We,
we thought you meant to be good.
Well,
why don't you save us?
Why don't you give us a blessing?
Why don't you give us a job?
Why don't you lift up
the light of your face
upon us?
Oh God.
But David says that
I've come to see
that's not who you are.
I've come to see you.
The God who's come to bring light
into the darkness,
joy in the midst of anguish,
life in the place of death,
salvation in the place of lostness.
And so David says,
verse five,
but you,
O God,
have put more joy in my heart
than they have
when their grain
and their wine abound.
Their grain can abound,
their wine can abound,
their stocks can go up,
their investments can overflow,
that they can have
everything going well,
but that's not
the main point of life.
You've put a joy in my heart.
You've put a satisfaction.
You've put something in my heart
that exceeds even
all the material blessings
of this world.
God,
you've put a joy in my heart
that exceeds them
even when their grain
and their wine
and their stocks
and investment abound.
For in peace,
I will both lie down and sleep.
For you alone,
O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.
Jesus says,
don't come to me
for temporary blessings.
Come to me to be rescued,
to be healed,
to be given new life.
I am the rescuing.
God.
Now,
what does that actually mean?
So Jesus says,
come to me.
But what does that mean?
Well,
look at what he says.
Look at verse 27.
Jesus says here,
do not work for the things
that perish,
but for the one thing
that will last forever,
the thing that only I can give.
And they say,
so what must we do
to be doing the works of God?
And that is a great question.
Jesus offers us new life
and you say,
okay,
so what must I do?
What is the thing
that God requires?
If there's one thing
that God requires me,
what must I do
to be doing the works of God?
I want to be saved.
I want to be rescued.
I want to experience
God's blessing.
What must I do?
Friends,
what should we do?
But look at how Jesus answers.
Verse 29,
Jesus answered them,
this is the work of God.
This is the one thing
that God requires
that you believe in him
whom he has sent.
Friends,
that's it.
Just believe.
No works required.
No charity required.
No giving of money.
No certain number of days
of church attendance.
No sacrifices.
No attending class.
No attending CG.
You want to be rescued.
You want to be healed.
You want to meet
the living God.
You want to experience
life in his name.
What must you do?
Jesus says,
there's only one thing.
Believe.
Believe in the one
that he sent.
And you will find life
and life in his name.
This is the work
that God requires.
Believe in him
whom God has sent.
But what does that mean?
Well,
obviously it means
believing the facts,
right,
regarding Jesus.
We spoke about that
last week.
Do the research.
Examine the evidence.
Question the eyewitnesses.
Investigate the evidence.
As we heard last week,
examine what the Bible says.
One cannot know God
or experience God
if you don't know,
if you don't believe,
at least come to
some level of confidence
in the historical claims
that Jesus really is
who he said he is.
That he really did live
and die and rise again.
But when Jesus says
you must believe in me,
he means much more than that.
It's certainly not less than that,
but it's much more than that.
What does Jesus mean
when he says believe in me?
Look what Jesus says
in verse 35.
Jesus says,
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me
shall not hunger.
Whoever believes in me
shall not thirst.
Jesus says,
to experience life,
you must believe in me
and go on believing in me.
What he means is
not just simply believing
the facts about Jesus,
but in a sense,
feasting on him,
savoring on him,
looking to him
for sustenance and life.
When I was at school
many, many, many years ago,
it was like in the 1990s,
before some of you
were even born,
I had a good friend
that was a very serious diabetic,
type 1 diabetes.
He always used to have
a can of Coke with him
wherever he went.
In his lunchbox,
he had a can of Coke.
And some of the other boys
in school thought it was fun
to steal his can of Coke,
right,
out of his lunchbox.
But it was actually
very serious.
Because being a diabetic,
if his blood sugar levels
dropped,
it was obviously
very dangerous.
And he could go into
a hypoglymic state,
go into a coma,
possibly even die.
And so he always had
this can of Coke with him
in case his blood sugar levels
dropped too quickly
and he needed to get
the levels up.
And there were times
from times he would
have to do this,
open this can and drink it
to get his levels up
to not only be okay,
but maybe to even live,
to revive him,
to sustain him.
Jesus says that
you can go on living,
but unless you're feasting on me,
spiritually,
your level's going to drop
and you're going to die.
To believe in Jesus
is not just intellectual
assent about the facts
and knowing the knowledge,
it's about feasting on him.
It's about getting him
inside of us
so that we feast on him
so that he sustains us.
Well, think about this.
Maybe you go out for a meal
with a friend, right?
You've had a long day at work,
you're tired,
you're exhausted,
you're drained,
and you meet a friend
for a meal at dinner.
And the food arrives
and what do you do?
You study it very carefully, right?
And you look up
what is the Hebrew word
for dumplings
and you analyze it
and you do a Bible study
on the food in front of you
and you all go away
and say,
okay, what is the application of this?
And then you leave the restaurant, right?
And you've had a good Bible study.
No, no, you don't do that at all, right?
What do you do?
You feast on the food,
you eat it,
you savor it,
you devour it.
And maybe you don't know
what the calorie content is,
but that's okay.
You get the sustenance
inside of your body
because you need it
to energize you,
to sustain you,
to invigorate you,
to revitalize you.
When God's people
were in the wilderness,
they were in deep trouble
and God provided food for them
to sustain them,
to revitalize them,
to keep them going.
And they say here to Jesus,
they say,
Jesus,
God provided bread
for our fathers
in the wilderness.
He sustained us
and Jesus says,
you're on the right track.
Okay, keep going,
keep thinking.
Yeah, what's the next
logical conclusion?
Listen,
Jesus says,
I am the bread.
I am the bread
that's come from heaven.
Verse 49,
later on he says,
your fathers ate the bread
in the wilderness
and they died.
But there is bread
that comes down from heaven
and the one that eats of it
will not die.
I,
I am the living bread
that comes down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread,
anyone eats of me,
if anyone believes in me,
he will not die,
he will live forever.
Jesus says that
to believe in him
is to feast on him,
to savor him,
to delight in him,
to,
to get who Christ is
into us
so that sustains
and invigorates
and enlivens us.
And so Jesus says
to crowds
and he says to us today,
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me
shall not hunger.
Whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.
Friends,
believing in Jesus
is not just intellectual assent,
it's not just understanding
the facts
or agreeing with him
or agreeing with the doctrines
about him,
it's actually coming to him
in such a way
that he feeds
and sustains our souls.
And so here's the question,
are you believing in Jesus?
Not just once off in 1997
you made a commitment,
but today,
are you feasting on him?
Is he sustaining you spiritually?
Is your soul alive
and awake to him?
Are you believing
and feasting on Jesus?
Friends,
all of us here
look to something,
to someone,
to trust in something,
to sustain us,
to energize us,
to carry us
through the journey of life.
What is it for you?
What is it that you're trusting in?
What is it that you're believing in?
What is it that you're hoping in?
Jesus says,
I am the bread of life.
I am the one that has come.
Friends,
many of us here this morning
would describe ourselves
as followers of Jesus.
Maybe you made a commitment
to Christ once upon a time,
got baptized,
to join the church,
but are you believing in him today?
Is he sustaining you?
Is he driving you?
What is feeding your soul?
Are you still feasting in Jesus?
How are your spiritual blood sugar levels?
Are you in cardiac arrest?
Are you hyperglycemic?
Are you suffering?
Friends,
I know from my own life,
one of the things
that I find so easy to do,
and actually as a pastor,
I find this particularly easy to do,
is to go through the motions,
to recite the confessions,
to sing the songs,
to do my devotions in the morning,
and to go through the motions,
but my soul is not feasting on Christ.
And I can tick the box
and say I've done it,
but actually my soul is still dry.
All of us have that temptation.
Jesus says,
come to me,
come and feast on me.
Now,
practically,
what does that mean?
Well,
two things very simply practically.
How do we actually do that?
To feast on Christ
requires two things very simply.
The first is this,
to slow down enough
to actually be with Him.
I don't know if you've ever
had this experience
where you've been unbelievably busy
at work
and your work is crunching,
you know,
you crunching hours,
work is crushing you,
right?
And you've been very busy
and all your relationships
start to suffer.
So your friends
no longer invite you out
because you've turned them down
the last 15 times,
right?
And your children
no longer tell you
what's going on at school
because you haven't really
been around for the last month.
And your spouse
just tells you
where to be
and at what time.
They don't even discuss it
with you
because you don't have time
to talk about things.
Your spouse says,
you've got to be
at that appointment
at 3 o'clock,
right?
And your life is so busy
that actually
your relationships suffer.
There's no connection.
You're just going through life
doing your diary,
your calendar.
What's going on?
You're so busy
you've left
your relationships behind.
You know,
in the ancient world,
thankfully,
they didn't have McDonald's
or 7-Eleven.
You couldn't go get
a quick meal,
right?
To have a meal with somebody,
to break bread with somebody
was an evening long
extended event.
You would sit down
and spend hours
with each other
talking and breaking bread
and then some more bread
would come
and you'd break that further
and you'd discuss
and you'd share your life
and you'd share your heart
with somebody.
Friends,
Jesus says that
to believe in Him
means to feast on Him,
to nourish our souls
on who He is.
But that means more
than just a one-minute
Bible study on the MTR.
It means more than
just scrolling Instagram
and finding a verse somewhere
and thinking I've had a devotion,
right?
That's not a devotion.
To believe in Jesus,
to feast in Him.
But to feast in Jesus
is to slow down enough
that actually to be with Him,
to hear Him speak
to the real issues
of our hearts,
the challenges of our life,
to meditate on His Word,
to turn that into prayer.
But here's the second thing
it means.
It means to open up enough
to let Him in.
Again,
I don't know if you've had
this experience
where maybe you're going
through a really tough time.
There's some deep,
deep, heavy things
in your heart,
things that are weighing you down,
you're worried about,
you're anxious about.
And you go and you spend
an evening with friends,
okay?
They eventually invite you
despite the 15 rejections.
and you spend an evening
with friends
and nobody asks you
a single question.
Nobody asks you
how you're doing.
They all just talk
about themselves.
Have you ever had that?
And you've spent hours
with your friends
but you've come away
and nobody knows
what's going on inside of you.
And you feel more lonely
than before
even though you've just spent
an evening with friends.
You ever experience that?
In the ancient world,
to break bread with somebody,
to have a meal with somebody,
meant not just letting them
into your space,
it meant letting them
into your life.
To have somebody
in your home
wasn't just letting them
in your home,
it was letting them
into your heart.
As you break bread
and have a meal
with somebody,
it's communicating saying,
I want a relationship
with you.
I want to know you
and I want you to know me.
That's why in the Gospels
everybody's freaking out
when Jesus keeps
on having meals
with all sorts
of unsavory characters,
right?
He's having meals
with tax collectors
and prostitutes
and political insurrectionists
and murderers.
And the religious leaders
are saying,
how can you welcome
these people into your life?
How can you have
a relationship with them?
You've got to reject them.
You've got to kick them out
because they know
that to have a meal
with somebody says,
I want to know you.
I want to know the real you.
Jesus comes to us
and he says,
come.
Come and feast with me.
Come and eat of me.
Come and drink.
Come and sustain your soul
with me.
I want to know you
and I want you to know
the real me.
Friends,
it means having the real Jesus
knowing the real you.
It means processing
our actual fears,
our actual joys,
our actual hurts,
our actual desires,
our actual pains,
our actual agonies.
Letting him in on those things
and letting him speak to them.
What must we do
to be doing the works of God?
Simply,
believe in the one
that God has sent.
I,
I am the bread of life,
says Jesus.
Whoever comes to me
and feasts on me
and eats of me
will find life.
The miracles of Jesus,
the call of Jesus
to believe and feast on him.
Finally,
the promises of Jesus,
the wonderful promises.
Look at how our passage concludes.
Look at verse 35 to 40 with me.
Actually,
verse 36.
Actually,
let's make it 37.
Look here.
Jesus says this.
All that the Father gives me
will come to me.
Whoever comes to me,
I will never cast out.
For I have come down from heaven
not to do my own will,
but the will of him who sent me.
And this is his will,
that I should lose nothing
of all that he's given me,
but raise them up on the last day.
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 them up
on the last day.
Jesus concludes this section
with two wonderful,
wonderful promises.
First promise is this.
If you come to Jesus,
he will never chase you away.
He will never turn you away.
Friends,
how many of us grew up
being told either directly
or indirectly
that we were not good enough?
How many of us were told
that we were unwanted?
How many of us were scolded
and chased back and beaten,
belittled,
made to feel small,
inadequate?
How many of us were told
to sort ourselves out,
to fix our grades,
to sort out our life
and then come back
to our parents?
Jesus says that if you come to him,
weak as your faith may be,
all your issues,
all your baggage,
all your hurts,
all your pains,
weak,
insecure,
feeble as your faith may be,
he says,
I will never cast you out.
I will never chase you away.
I will never turn you down.
Friends,
that's amazing.
Jesus experienced
the type of rejection
on the cross
in our place
that we never need to fear
being rejected again.
And if you come to him,
weak and small
as your faith will be,
he will not turn you away.
One of the things
John Calvin says
is he says,
your praise,
he says,
our prayers are mixed with,
are full of mixed motives.
Self-centered motives,
greedy motives,
but don't worry,
your God knows that
and he loves you anyway.
So pray anyway.
Friends,
when we come to Jesus,
small as our faith may be,
weak as it may be,
mixed motives as it may be,
Jesus doesn't come and say,
come to me with perfect faith.
Once you've sorted it all out
and you've got all your issues
behind you,
then come to me.
He says,
come to me.
I will never turn you away.
What a promise.
What a savior.
What a king.
Second thing,
Jesus says this,
if you come to him,
he will never let you go.
Look at verse 39.
This is the will
of the one who sent me
that I should lose
none of those
he has given me,
but to raise them up
on the final day.
And this is the will
of my father
that everyone
who looks in the sun
and believes in him
shall have eternal life.
I will raise them up
on the last day.
Friends,
you know what that means?
It means it's not your faith
that's causing you
to hold on to Jesus.
It's Jesus'
gracious or amazing grace
that is holding on to you.
And there are times
when your faith is up
and there are times
when your faith is weak
and there are times
when you're doing well
and there's times
when you're not doing well.
You are not holding on to Jesus
as much as he's holding on to you.
And when your faith is weak
and when your faith is shallow
and when your faith
is not all that you hope it will be,
Christ is holding on to you.
He will not let you go.
on that final day, those who believe in me,
weak, small, insecure as their faith may be,
I will hold on them and I will raise them up.
Friends, let's not come to Jesus for material blessings.
Those things will never truly satisfy.
They will not last.
You can have all the money in the world.
You can have all the prestige or the power in the world.
It will flee away from you.
I remember hearing a story of a famous British author.
I've forgotten his name.
He sold like tens, probably even hundreds of books.
He was a multi-millionaire in pounds, right?
This is like in the 80s.
One of the wealthiest people in Britain.
He was in an interview one day and the interviewer says to him,
what do you wish someone had told you as a young man
it would be like when you got to the top?
And his answer was, I wish someone had told me there's nothing there.
Multi-millionaire, all the name, the prestige, there's nothing there.
Jesus says, you want to feast on those things?
It will not last.
It will perish.
Come to me.
Come and believe in me.
Let me satisfy you.
Let me fill you.
Let me rescue and deliver you.
Come and feast on me.
Fill your heart and your soul with me.
And let me bring you home.
Let's do it now as we come to him in prayer.
Lord Jesus, you are infinitely awesome and infinitely gracious.
God, we confess that the things of this world have their pull on us.
And God, we so need you.
We know we so need you.
Jesus, come and help us.
Lord, we confess with John Calvin.
Our faith is weak.
Our faith is small.
Our faith is full of doubts.
Our faith is insincere and with mixed motives.
But God, you're so gracious.
You will never turn us away.
So thank you, Lord.
God, help us to come to you now.
Lord, I pray for those of us maybe that are spiritual seekers.
Those that are wondering about faith.
Wondering whether they can trust you.
God, by your spirit, reveal yourself to us.
Open the eyes of our heart.
That we will see you and believe in you.
And have life in your name.
God, we pray these things in your wonderful and gracious name.