According to John 6:22-40 [NLTse]
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. 23 Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for Him. 25 They found Him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given Me the seal of His approval.”
28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.”
30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in You. What can You do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from Heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from Heaven. My Father did. And now He offers you the true bread from Heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the One Who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in Me even though you have seen Me. 37 However, those the Father has given Me will come to Me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from Heaven to do the will of God who sent Me, not to do My Own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those He has given Me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is My Father’s will that all who see His Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
Sermon – Why? What? How? Now!
In her blog, “Searching for Something”, a student named Michelle wrote: “I’m stuffing chocolate in my mouth, as much as I can take, in. It’s sickening-sweet, dripping down my throat, coating my tongue. I can’t take it. I’m not hungry. Yet I stuff it in to try to avoid that which cannot be solved by stuff-age. When you think about it, hunger is so easy to solve. The action of eating requires only some way of getting food into the mouth. Yet we go hungry. We go hungry because we do not have food. We go hungry because we have no time to eat. We go hungry because we diet. We go hungry because we are not satisfied. I just downed a bar of Hershey’s chocolate, yet I am still hungry: Hungry for answers to things that cannot be solved through simple arithmetic or logic; hungry for someone to tell me what I’m living for, for I have no answers.”
Michelle and millions like her are searching for that which will really satisfy; that one thing that will fulfill her inner hunger. Jesus says that He’s the answer to our hunger and thirst and that following Him settles the gnawing emptiness of the human spirit. But we tend to fill up on the wrong things.
Michelle is downing chocolate, and still others think that fixing their marriage or help with their money problems or being healed of disease would satisfy. The Lord Jesus tells the crowds who’ve followed Him around the lake, “You want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.” And we, too, have heard the health and wealth gospel and can come to Jesus for what He can give to us or do for us and completely miss what all these wondrous miracles – like signs along the way – are pointing to: That God is with us; that He has come among us in Jesus Christ and sent another comforter – the Holy Spirit – to stay with us forever.
He has revealed to us that our greatest need is not money or work or relationships or prestige or food or substances to help us deaden our pain. No. If, like Michelle, you are looking for answers and looking for meaning, then God in His goodness has revealed to us across the pages of the Bible that that deep inner hunger and thirst that’s gnawing at you comes from the Holy Spirit drawing attention to your alienation from God.
Maybe your parents didn’t treat you like they loved you or you have just never felt good enough; perhaps you feel unworthy of love or that you’ve been defiled and shamed and left as damaged-goods here in the world; possibly your life has been one person abandoning you after another, or you live your life in fear, insecure, uncertain… Our answer, our need, is not the perishable things of this life. Emmanuel – God with us – tells us, “Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.”
A person’s greatest need is the confident knowledge that our sins have been forgiven so that we can live trusting that our separation and isolation from the Almighty is over – that He is with us – and that His promises to us are sure and true! Yes, many people are experiencing legitimate needs. But if we give someone food, water, clothes, and shelter, if we fix their marriage or solve their money problems or heal them or their loved ones of whatever wasting disease and fail to share Jesus with them, then we have ultimately not given them what they truly need. This world’s immediate needs can seem so important and pressing, but what satisfies our soul-hunger and satiates our soul-thirst is Jesus showing us that God is good and the Holy Spirit showing us that God is close. That’s what satisfies.
And we eat the bread of life and drink the water of life by reading the Scriptures by faith that Jesus is meeting us there, and, ? by applying what we are reading to our lives. So, if we are having troubles or are aware of troubles around us or around the world, then when we read we should be asking God to speak to us and grant us guidance about such things, believing He will. If we read truths we don’t believe – for instance, perhaps we’ve always thought of God as distant and uninterested or insensitive and uncaring or stern and demanding but our reading shows us God to be intimate and involved (Psalm 139:1-18), kind and compassionate (Psalm 103:8-14), accepting and filled with joy and love (Zephaniah 3:17; Romans 15:7) – then we need to believe that He’s trying to reveal His true Self to us, meditate on these things, and believe Him. If what we read seems like a coincidence – that is, perhaps you were considering a fast and your reading today talked about fasting – then believe that He’s giving you the guidance and encouragement you need, and act upon it. The only work God wants from you is to trust in Christ, the One He has sent.
We are going to be celebrating the Lord’s Supper in a little bit. If you know that you are a sinner and believe that God the Father has sent Jesus Christ the Son to absolutely satisfy His judgment against your sin; and if you believe that God’s near to you now, living in you by the Holy Spirit, then come and be a part with us in sharing the body and blood of the Lord. Know that if you keep coming to Him you will never be hungry again. Know that if you keep coming to Him you will never be thirsty again.
Keep coming to Him when you read the Scriptures. Keep coming to Him in prayer. Keep coming to Him in the bread and the cup. He will never reject those who come to Him.