WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.060 Okay, I'd like to go back this morning to the reading we've read from Matthew's Gospel 00:00:05.060 --> 00:00:10.800 in that next section, and it's a great passage. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.580 And the Bible really is fabulous. 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:21.280 The more that we dig into Scripture, into the Bible, the more we see the divine author. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:27.960 And the deeper, really, and the wider and the higher is the truth that we can find. 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:28.960 It's unsearchable. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.880 There's always something that's amazing in it. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:39.120 And the Holy Spirit, who is the author behind the authors, as it were, the Holy Spirit, 00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:45.960 through Matthew, he beautifully weaves a picture, and is weaving a picture of the significance 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:51.560 of Jesus for people, both then and to his first audience. 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:57.040 It was mainly a Jewish audience that he wrote his gospel for, and also for now. 00:00:57.040 --> 00:00:58.040 And that's really important. 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:03.799 And I hope you'll grasp that as we progress through this passage. 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:07.680 Because Matthew is trying to get across the reality, and the Bible is getting across the 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.599 reality that Jesus is for people. 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:18.960 And he came into a people who were already set apart for him, the God's chosen people, 00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:23.640 the Jewish nation, which we learn all about in the Old Testament. 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:32.280 He comes into this small defensive and exclusively minded race of people who were persecuted, 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:38.879 and by this stage were colonized by an oppressive world power, the Romans. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:45.480 They were driven by religious and by political and nationalistic division. 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:53.159 They were generally a poor nation, although there was quite a marked, rich, poor divide. 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:56.920 And so that's the kind of nation that Jesus came into. 00:01:56.920 --> 00:02:02.200 And when He came and when He made His public ministry known, most people didn't really 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:03.200 get Him. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:07.079 They didn't understand Him. 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:11.199 Even His claims to be the Messiah that they'd learned about from the Old Testament, He 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:13.199 didn't seem to fit into their picture. 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:17.479 They couldn't understand His humanity if He was supposed to be God. 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:18.719 They knew His family. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:20.039 They knew how He'd been brought up. 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:22.879 They knew that He was a carpenter. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:26.919 Even others hated His authority. 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:30.120 The people in the story we read today, I'll say a little bit more about them later, they 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:37.639 feared that Jesus would be involved in a power grab against their own authority. 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:41.060 They had dreamed that the Messiah would come and would give them political freedom and 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:45.319 wealth and would enhance their power. 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:48.000 They didn't get this Savior Jesus. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.960 Others, the common people of the country tended to love the drama of Jesus. 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:59.439 We read in the first section there, the big, big crowds that came to listen to Him, to 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:00.439 hear His teaching. 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.080 They stayed for days to hear what He had to say. 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:04.199 They loved the drama. 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:06.360 They were awed by His miracles. 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:10.719 So many miracles we read about even in the passage today. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:14.920 But for the most part, they totally misunderstood Him. 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:17.759 He was an enigma, a mystery. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.000 He didn't dance to anyone's tune. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:27.280 He seemed challenging to follow, impossible to pigeonhole, hard to ignore, but easy to 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:28.280 reject. 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:37.319 It's a strange mixture in the people that Jesus came to save, to be the redeemer of 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:39.079 His own people. 00:03:39.079 --> 00:03:40.079 People, people. 00:03:40.079 --> 00:03:42.639 Why did Jesus bother? 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:43.919 Why did He bother with people? 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:46.479 Why did God the Son come from heaven? 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.879 The eternal, glorious sovereign God the Son. 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:51.599 Why did He become flesh and blood? 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:59.799 Why was He born of a virgin and grew up in this small backwater of the world, as it were, 00:03:59.799 --> 00:04:00.799 into this small nation? 00:04:00.799 --> 00:04:05.479 Why did He become part of the human race? 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:11.959 Enduring there, and can we go on to say, our ignorance, misunderstanding, hatred, and 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:17.879 for many, ultimate rejection, as it was then and often is for us now. 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:18.879 Why is that? 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:23.920 Well, it's because He is love. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.480 It is in His love that He came. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:36.160 He came because sin and death had enslaved us, as the Old Testament picture that I was 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:42.240 speaking about with the kids was symbolic of the slavery in Egypt. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:48.160 Death and sin hold us in its grip, slaves to it, lost in it. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:54.640 We are broken shadows of what He wants us to become, and He loves us. 00:04:54.640 --> 00:05:00.040 We're spiritually starving, and He comes to feed us into, and the darkness bring us 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:02.440 into His light. 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:08.319 And at the core of our very being, we are empty without Jesus Christ, and He loves us 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.800 enough to come and deal with that. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:18.920 We are guilty before His holiness, and apart from Him, we never find out what we're looking 00:05:18.920 --> 00:05:25.480 for, what we look for, what we strive for in life, never truly satisfies us until we find 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:28.600 our satisfaction in Jesus. 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:35.360 So what I want to talk about today, this morning, is Jesus Christ, He came because He loved 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:42.960 us, because in His justice and in His love, there was only one way that we could be reunited 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:48.360 with Him and live fully and live eternally, is because His love. 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:51.800 And in so doing, Christ became the bread of life. 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:55.439 Okay, really that's my theme this morning, is Christ is the bread of life. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:59.279 In the evenings, we were looking at the seven I am sayings of Jesus, the first one we looked 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:03.120 at was I am, Jesus said I am the bread of life. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:07.199 And I think that's a big theme in Jesus' mind right through His public ministry. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:11.839 And it definitely impinges on the passages that we've read in the last couple of weeks 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.279 and the one today. 00:06:14.279 --> 00:06:18.399 It's often a theme in the Bible, it's a theme right from the Old Testament, we saw that, 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:28.159 the unleavened bread spoke about the life that was cleared from sin and from slavery, 00:06:28.159 --> 00:06:33.639 as it were, it was a model of that, that Christ, that God in His covenant offered a fresh start 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:39.079 and that Jesus offers a fresh start in our lives without the old yeast of sin and the 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.560 reality of the damage that it does. 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:47.039 And then in the desert journey that they had manna, they had bread from heaven every day 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:53.840 to feed them, reminding them of their dependence on God in this new life and this covenant 00:06:53.840 --> 00:06:55.920 they had with Him. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:59.240 And bread you see is that essential ingredient, isn't it? 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:00.240 It's the essential ingredients. 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:09.400 It's not a expensive steak meal that Jesus pictures so much as this daily bread of life, 00:07:09.400 --> 00:07:15.439 nourishment for our bodies, speaking of nourishment for our souls and food. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:21.000 And that daily food God uses is a reminder of our dependence on Him as the gift-giver. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:26.519 It's never an end in itself, we don't just live for food. 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:34.399 And even His prayer that He teaches us today, our daily bread, is to point to Him as the 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:40.319 provider and to our need for more than just daily bread, the provision of life itself 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:45.439 and Him as our spiritual bread. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:50.360 And you see the problem of the heart is that sin deceives us that we don't need Him. 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:52.480 We don't need God. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:54.319 We can live by bread alone. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:55.319 That's all we need. 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:57.759 We can live by material things. 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.839 And so we push God out of the picture, we forget Him. 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:08.319 And that's exactly what Jesus was tempted with by Satan in the desert. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:14.719 Because our substitute, our Savior, faced the same kind of temptation that we faced. 00:08:14.719 --> 00:08:17.920 Satan said to Him, look, you don't really need God. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.040 You don't need to depend on God. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.600 You could take these stones and turn them into bread. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:26.199 And you could be, you didn't need to be starving and fasting for these forty days. 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:34.399 And Jesus replies to Him, we can't live by bread alone, but we need to live by every 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:36.559 word that comes from the mouth of God. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:42.919 You know, so consciously or maybe subconsciously, there's a voice inside us every day, even 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:47.039 as Christians that's saying, look, you don't need God today. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:49.239 You don't need to consider Him. 00:08:49.239 --> 00:08:50.239 You don't need His word. 00:08:50.239 --> 00:08:52.399 You don't need to follow or obey Him. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:58.839 And that's the temptation we face is to ignore Him or reject Him in our lives, as it is with 00:08:58.839 --> 00:09:05.639 those who have done that, who as yet have not seen the significance of Jesus as the 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:07.159 bread of life. 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:17.960 So we mentioned the miracles that Jesus did and the fact that He was popular, as we see 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.580 in the early part of this reading. 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:23.559 But then we come to the feeding of the 4000. 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:29.159 And I just want to mention or compare the two, there's two feedings, two feedings with bread 00:09:29.159 --> 00:09:30.159 that are mentioned. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:34.919 John a couple of weeks ago in chapter 14 read about the feeding of the 5000. 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:40.799 And here we have another miracle, very similar, the feeding of the 4000. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:46.879 And so we've got a feeding of 5000, a couple of chapters earlier, and then one of 4000. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.959 Well, why do we need two? 00:09:48.959 --> 00:09:51.399 Why do we need these two miracles repeated? 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.279 Is it just the same story, just with different numbers? 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:56.159 No, it's not. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:57.919 It's clearly not. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:04.439 Jesus speaks about the two feedings later in the passage when He's speaking to the disciples. 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:10.460 But there is some important realities that the first feeding of the 5000 was done in 00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:13.360 Galilee among the Jewish people. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.680 And Jesus did that great miracle among them. 00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:21.280 And then we learned last week that He moved out of Israel into the Decapolis, into the 00:10:21.280 --> 00:10:29.320 area of Tyre in Sidon, which was Gentile territory, which was not a safe place really 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.160 for a Jewish teacher and leader to be. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:39.360 And here He provides the second miracle to all the people who were there, 4000. 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:46.319 So He's telling them something very significant that they would later remember to two different 00:10:46.319 --> 00:10:49.719 nations, to the Jews and to the Gentiles. 00:10:49.719 --> 00:10:55.519 Now that's not that significant to us, but it was very significant when we understand 00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:01.480 the Bible and the message of Jesus being not just for the Jews, but for the whole world. 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:06.480 And basically, Jesus is saying with these two feedings, I am here for the whole world. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:10.639 I'm not just here for this small nation, this chosen people of Israel. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:15.840 I'm here for them first, and then I'm going with the message of the gospel to the whole 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:16.840 world. 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:19.800 And He wanted His disciples to know that. 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:27.560 He is for all people in all times, for first century Romans, for centurions, for leaders, 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:36.759 for caesars, for Pharisees and Sadducees, and for ordinary people in first century Israel, 00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:43.219 and for 21st century Scotland, for the Jewish readership and for the world readership ever 00:11:43.219 --> 00:11:44.219 since. 00:11:44.219 --> 00:11:51.599 And of course, the numbers for the original Jews who would have read this book were significant. 00:11:51.599 --> 00:11:53.279 Numbers had great significance in the Bible. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:59.120 So for the twelve basketfuls of the five thousand and the seven basketfuls of the four thousand, 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:00.120 they were significant. 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:05.199 Twelve, very much a number of completion in the Bible, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve 00:12:05.199 --> 00:12:12.559 disciples, twelve foundation stones, or seven, often being the number of perfection in the 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:14.120 Bible. 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:21.079 And Jesus is saying with these two feedings and with these two miracles that He is the 00:12:21.079 --> 00:12:22.879 bread of life. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:24.720 He's the provider. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:32.519 His salvation is going to be complete and perfect for all who put their trust in Him today. 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:34.559 And then Jesus is the healer. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:35.559 He's the life giver. 00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:36.559 He's the nourisher. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.080 He's the king we all need. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:43.080 He's building His kingdom, which Matthew is the theme of Matthew, is the kingdom of God, 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:48.759 which is going to transcend borders and nations and tribes and languages and color and creed 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:51.440 and ethnicity. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:59.040 And He is for all peoples, and He is this great bread of life. 00:12:59.040 --> 00:13:04.800 So we have the responses here in this chapter as well. 00:13:04.800 --> 00:13:09.040 We have the Pharisees and the Sadducees who demand a sign from Jesus. 00:13:09.040 --> 00:13:10.480 They want to test Him. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:11.760 They don't really believe Him. 00:13:11.760 --> 00:13:14.240 They don't...they're not interested in Him. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:17.200 And it's a very unholy alliance actually between these two people. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:22.280 They were very different, these two groups of people, both socially, politically and 00:13:22.280 --> 00:13:24.920 religiously, they were very different. 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:30.400 But together they perceive Jesus as a threat to their power and their control. 00:13:30.400 --> 00:13:35.640 They misunderstood the nature of Jesus' Messiah claims. 00:13:35.640 --> 00:13:36.640 And they demanded us. 00:13:36.640 --> 00:13:38.960 Isn't it funny they demanded a sign? 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:42.320 But they knew He'd done lots and lots of miracles. 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:47.200 We've just read just in the verses before about the incredible miracles that He had done healing 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:52.760 many people, the mute and the crippled and the lame and the blind. 00:13:52.760 --> 00:13:54.240 He'd done lots of miracles. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.879 And then He'd fed the 4,000. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:58.160 What more did they need? 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:00.720 Well, they were really just testing Him. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:02.160 They were making demands of Him. 00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:06.640 They were probably going to...if He did a sign for them, they would just attribute it to 00:14:06.640 --> 00:14:09.160 the devil as they'd done before. 00:14:09.160 --> 00:14:12.200 And Jesus says to them, look, I'm only going to give you one sign. 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:14.920 And it's the sign of Jonah. 00:14:14.920 --> 00:14:21.400 Now, He'd be saying to them, no, you're good at interpreting the signs of the times with 00:14:21.400 --> 00:14:22.400 the weather. 00:14:22.400 --> 00:14:26.840 But He said they had no idea of taking the Word of God from the Old Testament and applying 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:27.840 it to Jesus. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:32.800 And He said, but you listen, you watch, you know about Jonah. 00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:33.800 Why did He say that? 00:14:33.800 --> 00:14:34.800 It's very interesting, isn't it? 00:14:34.800 --> 00:14:36.800 He tells them about the sign of Jonah. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:43.479 Because Jonah was that Old Testament prophet who was running away from God and yet, who 00:14:43.479 --> 00:14:47.359 God and His mercy didn't abandon. 00:14:47.359 --> 00:14:52.240 He was on a ship because he was told to go to...with a message to Nineveh to tell them 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:53.240 to repent. 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:55.719 And he ran away to his own people on a boat. 00:14:55.719 --> 00:14:58.279 He didn't run on a boat, he sailed on a boat. 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:03.559 And but there was a storm and then he was thrown overboard and he was swallowed by a big fish. 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:05.599 And then he was spewed out three days later. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:10.560 He must have looked a sight as he wandered towards Nineveh with this message of repentance 00:15:10.560 --> 00:15:14.759 because of the living God and because of the sins of Ninevite people. 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:18.279 And they repented when they saw Him. 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:23.000 And it was a powerful, it's a powerful story, a really powerful story. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:28.759 And it's the only Old Testament story of a prophet going to the Gentile people with this 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.440 message. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:36.800 And I think that's significant for these Pharisees and Sadducees. 00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:41.200 But it's pointing forward to a greater resurrection. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:46.120 It's only that Jonah was almost resurrected, wasn't he, from the belly of the fish? 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:47.680 Three days he was there. 00:15:47.680 --> 00:15:54.000 But it's pointing forward to Jesus and his mind was on his own death and resurrection, 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:57.400 a greater death, if you call. 00:15:57.400 --> 00:16:01.160 Jonah's been in the whales belly as a death. 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:04.919 He's greater than that because it was a real death and it was for three days he was in 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.559 the grave and then he was resurrected on the third day. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:10.439 And this was in the mind of Jesus. 00:16:10.439 --> 00:16:15.279 And he says, that will be the sign that you really need to see and know and understand. 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:19.399 There was great patience in what he was saying for them. 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:25.039 He was loving them and saying to them, look, if you look at what will happen in the future, 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:31.199 I come to die on the cross to be the sacrifice, the Lamb of God for your sins. 00:16:31.199 --> 00:16:33.279 And then third day I'll rise again. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:39.799 Not like Jonah who was going to die again after that amazing miracle in his life. 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:45.559 But Jesus was to rise triumphant over the grave, never to face death again, and to be 00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:53.000 triumphant over death for everyone who puts their trust in Him, having died for their sins. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:17:00.080 Three days in the grave, remarkable power over death. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:09.039 As a football fan, I always remember the story of Fabrice Moamba who died on the pitch playing 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:15.680 for Bolton Wanderers and they reckon he was dead for 78 minutes. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.440 Incredible, incredible. 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:28.720 And yet here's Jesus Christ, three days in the grave and yet is raised on the third 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.799 day to eternal life. 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:42.480 And you see the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they don't want that Jesus. 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.320 The Pharisees particularly needed a sign. 00:17:45.320 --> 00:17:46.680 They wanted something more. 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.480 Jesus wasn't enough for them and what he'd come to do. 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:54.640 Did they want more evidence of God or His love or His purposes or His diagnosis or His 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:55.640 cure as needed? 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:57.799 Did they want something else? 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:02.560 Well, they actually, not only did they want a sign but they added their own works to the 00:18:02.560 --> 00:18:03.560 mix. 00:18:03.560 --> 00:18:04.560 They were self-righteous. 00:18:04.560 --> 00:18:09.920 They thought, I'll get into heaven by the good things that I do. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:15.360 He said, no, you don't need to add to the work of Jesus. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:20.439 And then sometimes, you know, we're the same, you know, maybe our good works we think will 00:18:20.439 --> 00:18:21.439 get us into heaven. 00:18:21.439 --> 00:18:28.919 But also maybe we think if it's my good works and if I only, if Jesus would only do a miracle 00:18:28.919 --> 00:18:32.719 in my life, would only answer a prayer in a miraculous way, if He'd only show Himself 00:18:32.719 --> 00:18:34.279 to me, then I would believe in Him. 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:39.719 If He'd show me a sign, we'd test Him because we don't think Him claiming to be the bread 00:18:39.719 --> 00:18:43.079 of life is enough for us. 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:47.399 You know, we don't react like the Canaanite woman that we saw last week who said, well, 00:18:47.399 --> 00:18:50.839 even the crumbs will do for me. 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:57.759 The thing is, we find that Jesus is the bread of life is just not enough. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.279 We want more. 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:04.299 We think the cross is too bleak, too stark. 00:19:04.299 --> 00:19:08.799 We want to offer Him our goodness and our life as well. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:14.720 And we want to live our own way and maybe as well as Jesus because my own way is much 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:18.519 more exciting and sin is much more exciting in reality. 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:24.159 Because bread is so boring and dull and we often think Jesus is like that. 00:19:24.159 --> 00:19:32.119 I wish He would give us something more because we don't understand Him and who He is. 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:33.559 None of us do, fully. 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:35.079 It's not enough for you. 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:37.639 Jesus is not enough for you. 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:44.280 Or could it be like the Sadducees here for whom Jesus is too much, actually? 00:19:44.280 --> 00:19:46.320 Sadducees were different from the Pharisees. 00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:50.560 They didn't like Jesus' teaching of another kingdom in the same way as the Pharisees, 00:19:50.560 --> 00:19:52.960 but they were very different from the Pharisees. 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.160 They were quite aristocratic. 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:58.280 They were of the priestly tribe, really. 00:19:58.280 --> 00:20:00.720 They allied themselves with the Roman authorities. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:04.040 They colluded quite often with the Roman authorities. 00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:08.799 They didn't like some of the Old Testament teaching and indeed certainly didn't like 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:12.519 Jesus' teaching about the afterlife, about the resurrection. 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:13.920 They didn't believe in angels and demons. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:15.319 They didn't believe in final judgment. 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:19.200 I don't know what, actually, they didn't believe, to be honest. 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:23.920 But so they were scared that Jesus was just too much for them. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:29.039 Too much teaching about spiritual realities that they couldn't see. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:35.680 His truth of the heart was challenging their position in society, their aristocracy in 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.480 society. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:40.240 And I think we can often be like that. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:44.159 And I think you can be like that if you're not a Christian this morning, that Jesus is 00:20:44.159 --> 00:20:46.799 too much for you. 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:53.639 The supernatural teaching that He speaks about, the unseen spiritual world that He talks about, 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:59.280 the starkness of your need and of mine, the exclusivity of His offer, the jealousy of His 00:20:59.280 --> 00:21:07.600 love, the power and the glory that is due to Him. 00:21:07.600 --> 00:21:11.600 Sometimes you feel that that's just, it's too much for you and you walk away. 00:21:11.600 --> 00:21:21.640 You don't want that reality and you just, you suppress it and you don't deal with it. 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:28.000 But in so doing, you're denying what your soul spiritually needs, what your life needs. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:35.400 What we as Christians have found to become life changing, the bread of life, Jesus Christ 00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:41.360 Himself, the satisfaction and the nourishment that enables us to live life in abundance, 00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:43.640 eternal life, spiritual life. 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:45.920 Is He not enough for you? 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.080 Is He too much for you? 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:52.279 And that's the response of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:55.079 But what about His disciples? 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:59.720 Because disciples were followers, but they really, and we are like this so much, we have 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:03.079 sluggish appetites for Jesus as the bread of life. 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:05.199 They're really slow to understand. 00:22:05.199 --> 00:22:11.960 You see, in verse 12, Jesus says to them, then they understood, and that word understood 00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:16.159 means that they finally came to understand what Jesus was teaching. 00:22:16.159 --> 00:22:17.960 They were really slow. 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:23.880 When Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they thought 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:25.840 it was about bread, physical bread. 00:22:25.840 --> 00:22:32.079 He says, Jesus says, it's not about the fact that you forgot to take bread with you. 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:34.720 I'm taking a picture here, Jesus is saying. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:37.000 I'm talking about spiritual realities. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:39.440 They were so slow to understand. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:40.840 And that's the picture, isn't it? 00:22:40.840 --> 00:22:46.519 We often get in the gospels that they, and we like them, don't get so much of what Jesus 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:49.160 says, we're so slow to understand. 00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:56.119 We do fail to realize the danger or how deeply sin affects our life and our hearts and our 00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:58.240 appetites. 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:06.440 We hold loosely to Jesus Christ because we don't really think we need Him. 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:17.600 And we feel that He's kind of, He's great to have as an added extra in our lives, but 00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:20.880 we don't understand so much of who He is. 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:27.400 His love and His patience is unbounded for us, but we're not to take advantage of that. 00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:32.840 And it's only as we know the truth of Jesus Christ in and through His person and work 00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:41.279 that we can know Him and that He can set us free. 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:43.359 There's nothing else that we need. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:48.759 And Jesus says, beware of the teaching of the Pharisees in the Son. 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:54.919 Beware of anything that takes you away from depending and relying and trusting on Jesus 00:23:54.919 --> 00:23:55.919 Christ. 00:23:55.919 --> 00:24:00.199 So the question we ask ourselves when we read a passage like this as Christians is, what 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:04.160 is it we're hungering and thirsting for? 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:06.120 What places Jesus in our lives? 00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:08.920 Do we realize we have competing appetites? 00:24:08.920 --> 00:24:11.200 Do we recognize that? 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:16.200 Even as saved people, even as Christians, that we have remaining sinful desires that 00:24:16.200 --> 00:24:22.920 can be strong and can be damaging if we don't put them to death, if we don't hunt them down 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:30.759 in the same way as the leaven was hunted out and taken away from the houses of Old Testament 00:24:30.759 --> 00:24:37.160 believers as they remembered the Passover meal so that every day was a new day of beginning 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:39.320 for them. 00:24:39.320 --> 00:24:47.920 And we work out through Christ and in His strength the importance of renewing our appetites 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:56.279 and feeding ourselves on Him and deepening and broadening and developing our love for 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:05.400 Him as we root out sin and as we feed our lives relationally on Jesus Christ in prayer. 00:25:05.400 --> 00:25:13.960 That His Word, His teaching is what we are governed by and driven by and molded by, that 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:19.720 we feed in His Word, that we are aware of any teaching that is contrary to His truth. 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:25.759 It's leaven, it's like sin that affects our whole lives destructively. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:31.600 If we are to be transformed, we have to have an open heart, an open ear, an open Bible 00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:38.120 where to be our minds are to be, we are to have the mind of a student following Jesus 00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:44.439 as disciples and learners, preaching does matter and preaching needs to be based on 00:25:44.439 --> 00:25:45.959 God's Word. 00:25:45.959 --> 00:25:53.079 You need to be praying as you hear the preaching of the Word that it will trouble your conscience, 00:25:53.079 --> 00:26:02.399 heal your soul, redeem as God uses it, studying the Bible, reading it one to one with others 00:26:02.399 --> 00:26:04.239 as well. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:10.440 Being in a Christian home, having Christian parents, being mentored, having examples, 00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:18.079 being in a community of believers, hearing the teaching of Christ and learning of the 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:21.920 example of others who follow Christ, it matters. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:26.880 It matters that we feed our lives on the bread that is Jesus Christ and that we are 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:34.720 aware of any teaching or lifestyle that separates us from Him. 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:43.040 Worship is the chief end of our lives, glorifying God, and so we seek to flourish as we relate 00:26:43.040 --> 00:26:44.040 to Him. 00:26:44.040 --> 00:26:48.320 That's why we're sad that we can't celebrate the Lord's Supper because the Lord's Supper 00:26:48.320 --> 00:26:54.680 is another visual representation of what it means to feed on Jesus and on His flesh and 00:26:54.680 --> 00:27:00.400 blood metaphorically, His broken body on the cross and His shed blood. 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:04.039 On our behalf, we eat the bread. 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:06.000 This is my body. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:11.320 You know, we see Christ in Him crucified, and what it means for us personally, He died 00:27:11.320 --> 00:27:16.960 for our sins so that I can know life and be resurrected to eternal life. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.519 Jesus is the bread of life. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:28.559 And His mission as He is teaching His disciples here is to reach out with His message and 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:35.279 His finished work on the cross and His resurrection as an ascension, not only to the disciples 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:38.279 and those around Him, but to the whole world. 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:39.680 That's His great commission to us. 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:41.039 It's to every single person. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:47.319 That's why our Sunday evening videos are important because we're seeking to reach out to a new 00:27:47.319 --> 00:27:49.039 audience with Jesus. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:51.279 I know it's online and I know it's imperfect. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:56.480 I know it's not the finished article, but as we pray through it and pray for it, we 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:03.079 want to reach out to people with the gospel of Jesus who is the bread of life. 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:05.119 Do you believe that? 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:07.359 Do you believe that message? 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:13.759 And as Christians, do we live as if He is the bread of our life, that He is the one 00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:15.079 that we need every day? 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:18.839 Yeah, we've got a great hope in the future of feasting. 00:28:18.839 --> 00:28:21.559 There's the occasional feast here now. 00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:27.079 And the more we know of Christ, the more the bread becomes rich and glorious and almost 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:28.079 like a feast. 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:32.759 And it is a feast, but there will be a day in the future when we will feast with Him. 00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:36.639 And He uses that analogy a lot about the new heavens and the new earth. 00:28:36.639 --> 00:28:43.319 But now do we recognize Him as a bread of life, that He matters every day and that we 00:28:43.319 --> 00:28:45.159 need Him every day? 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:53.960 1, 6, verses 47 to 50, it's so important when we remember the I ams of Jesus that we're 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:54.960 looking at in the evenings. 00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:59.519 Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life, I am the bread of life. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:02.720 Your fathers ate the man and the wilderness, they died. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:08.360 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that no one may eat of it and so that one 00:29:08.360 --> 00:29:10.759 may eat of it and not die. 00:29:10.759 --> 00:29:12.600 Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:16.919 So you truly believe that and will you put your faith and trust in Him? 00:29:16.919 --> 00:29:24.919 And as believers, will we nourish our lives on Him day to day because of who He is? 00:29:24.919 --> 00:29:29.919 I hope and pray so for myself and for all who are listening this morning. 00:29:29.919 --> 00:29:30.919 Let's pray together. 00:29:30.919 --> 00:29:34.719 Father, help us to be nourished in You and on You. 00:29:34.719 --> 00:29:39.199 Help us to understand these pictures, to make sense of them. 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:45.640 Remind us of the sacrament and why it is so important that just as the sign of Jonah 00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:51.600 was pointing forward to the death and resurrection of Christ, so the sacrament points back and 00:29:51.600 --> 00:29:57.600 reminds us of the centrality of a crucified and risen Savior. 00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:03.319 Help us to understand that more and not just let it trip off our tongues. 00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:08.879 Help us to understand the cost that Jesus paid to set us free. 00:30:08.879 --> 00:30:15.679 And may we live with gratitude to be opened up to Your great love and to the wonderful 00:30:15.679 --> 00:30:21.720 reality of a God who wants to transform us and deal with the cancer of sin in our lives 00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:25.519 which destroys us and which is death. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:27.200 And help us to stay close. 00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:32.879 I pray that for our people today that they would come close and stay close. 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:39.160 I pray it for myself and I pray it for all who listen that all of us will come close 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:41.400 and be close to Jesus. 00:30:41.400 --> 00:31:03.880 Amen.