534: The Bread of Life | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Welcome everybody, how you doing? So glad that you joined us today. We are continuing our march through John's Gospel. We are in chapter six for the third consecutive week, and we're gonna be here for six weeks. This is John's longest chapter. In fact, this is one of the longest chapters in the entire New Testament at 71 verses.

We began it two weeks ago when we looked at the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, and the question that we asked is why is it that John would spill so much ink on a miracle that had already been covered by three other gospel writers, pretty thoroughly? Why would he do that? Well, the reason that we determined is that there was something he wanted to make sure they did not miss about this miracle, something that he himself missed the first time around.

In Mark chapter six, in Mark's account of the walking on water miracle, it says that they were utterly astounded when Jesus broke into their circumstances. And the reason that they were shocked is because they did not understand about the loaves. There was something that they missed about the miracle that caused them to not expect Jesus to show up in the way that he does. It's especially in those moments when we don't think he can get to us, that he loves to show up and come into our circumstances.

There was something that John missed the first go round, and he doesn't want us to miss it. And the clue for understanding what he missed and what the crowd missed was watching the attitude of the crowd. They were fascinated by this sign. They were really enthusiastic about Jesus, or at least it appeared that way. But John lets us know that Jesus sees to the heart, and that what looked like enthusiasm for Jesus was actually enthusiasm about an agenda, a personal agenda that sees Jesus as a useful tool for getting something else that I actually want more than Jesus.

It is seeing Jesus as a means to an end. They saw the sign, kinda, but they didn't see the significance of it. They didn't understand what it pointed to, and they dragged Jesus down as a means to an end. It was something that they missed, and John does not want you and me to miss it.

The fact that they wanted to make him king by force, their determination to do that revealed something about them—that while they saw the miracle, they didn't really see it. I mean, they rightly identified this is the fulfillment of the promise from Deuteronomy that God would raise up a prophet like Moses, and here is one that is feeding masses of people in the wilderness. That is the one, and they were right.

And so they conclude, he should be our king, and they're right about that too. He is in the process of becoming the king of all kings, the king of the cosmos, but not in the way they thought, and certainly not on their terms.

You see, when they pursue Jesus as a means to an end, what does Jesus do? He retreats. He withdraws from the crowd because he does not receive that kind of worship that sees him as a means to an end. It's actually not worship. It's using him, and Jesus won't be used. He will not let people come to him on their terms and so he withdraws.

The Confrontation and Explanation

And this is where we're gonna pick up the story. The morning after Jesus withdraws, what happens? What is the crowd doing? Two weeks ago, we asked this question: Is it possible that if we are experiencing distance from Jesus, we have perhaps made the same mistakes that the disciples and the crowd make that day—that we're seeing Jesus as a means to an end, which always leads to disappointment. It always leads to disillusionment.

In fact, if you follow the crowd, if you just zoom out and see what happens throughout John chapter six, what you're gonna see is this: they start out really excited about Jesus and then it causes them to make some demands about what they expect Jesus to be for them, and he withdraws. So they go looking for him, and Jesus is going to be honest with them about what's going on in their heart, and it's going to lead to disappointment, to disillusionment.

In fact, there's a verse 61 in John chapter six that says, many of the disciples—well, first they said, this is a hard teaching, who can accept it? They become disillusioned by what Jesus is teaching when he explains it, and then it ends with outright desertion. That when you're not seeing Jesus for who he claims to be, it always leads to disappointment, disillusionment, and eventually desertion.

And perhaps that is why this is so important to John and why he spends so much time talking about it—only 15 verses for the miracle itself. And the rest of the chapter, in a sense, unpacks the meaning of the miracle, the implications of the miracle, what they're supposed to expect to see because of that miracle. You could say it this way: the first 15 verses is a sign. The rest of the chapter is a sermon.

And what's interesting is that witnessing the sign brings about some enthusiasm. Listening to the sermon thins out the crowd to the point where Jesus looks at his disciples and says, you gonna go too? Where Peter famously says, Lord, to whom shall we go? There is nowhere else.

John wants us to know that if we don't get the sign right, if we don't see what the sign is pointing to, then it will lead to the same inevitable outcome. And Jesus was so committed to them seeing the truth that he was content to let them walk away sad.

So here's what we're going to see in today's passage. We're going to see, first of all, a confrontation. Jesus is gonna hold up the mirror and show them what's going on inside their heart, and it's kinda ugly. Secondly, we're gonna see an explanation—that is, Jesus will explain some things they did not understand about the miracle. And third, we're going to see an invitation. Jesus gives them an explanation so they will understand, but then he invites them to experience and participate in all that this sign points to because it's real.

Jesus Confronts Their Motives

Let's jump in starting in verse 22 and find out what happened the next day. It says:

On the next day, the crowd remained on the other side of the sea, saw that there'd only been one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone.

These guys are sharp. They realize Jesus went up on a mountain, they saw the disciples leave. Jesus was not with them. They're making that connection. And so they’re waiting, you can imagine, at the base of that mountain for him to come back down because they still have an agenda for Jesus. They’re gonna make him king, but he's nowhere to be found.

You see, Jesus, at the end of our passage two weeks ago, he was distant, but he was still present. But now, he is completely absent. He's gone, and they're looking. They're confused. Here’s what it says happened next:

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 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?

They probably should have said, how did you get here? What happened? We don't understand.

Little side note: when we are seeking Jesus in this way—as a means to an end—we will feel confused by him. We won't get him. We'll be like looking for him because he's distant or removed because we’re not really following Jesus, just like this crowd. We're following a version of Jesus that isn't the real Jesus, or maybe what we're doing is we're following him, but what we're really after is something that we think he's going to give to us. He's a means to an end, and that always leads to kind of this confusing, not being able to really get our hands around him.

And Jesus is going to expose what's going on in their hearts. This is the confrontation. Listen to what he says. First of all, he says, truly, truly. And whenever you hear Jesus say truly, truly, he's gonna do it two times in this passage. He's about to say something real true, and he wants you to listen up. That word actually means amen, amen. And typically, we say amen at the end of what we're going to say. Prophets would often say, thus says the Lord. They don't speak by their own authority, but they know that they're messengers of God.

Jesus here says, amen, amen. True, true is what I'm about to say, why? Because I have the divine authority to speak truth. And what he's speaking truth here specifically about is your motives.

Now, let's pause here for a second. There are a lot of things we're supposed to model our lives after, not this, okay? We don't have the ability to know other people's motives. We just don't. But you know who does have that power? The Son of God. And he looks into the hearts of these people and he says, let me tell you something true, true about your heart, and here's what it is: you are seeking me, he says, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

As we discussed two weeks ago, John Piper's famous line was kind of the punchline of my sermon two weeks ago: He did not come to give bread, but to be bread. See, they were looking to Jesus, give me the stuff, give me the stuff that makes life satisfying. And Jesus says, no, no, I am that which satisfies. That's the whole point of the feeding miracle. He said, you are not following me for me. You're following me for what you think you might get. You're not seeking me to love me, but to leverage my power for some personal agenda that you have. And I'm gonna call that out.

He holds up the mirror. Whenever we are seeking Jesus as a means to an end, here's how he characterizes that. He says, that is food that perishes. He says, you're laboring for food that spoils. You're eating something that isn't going to last.

And in this next couple of sentences, what Jesus is doing here is laying out a universal binary for all of humanity. There are two types of food and there are two ways to live. There is the food that the world gives, and it is all spoiling and perishing in real time. That is to say, it will not ultimately and finally satisfy us.

Do you remember what happened two chapters ago, the woman at the well? Jesus is gonna use a lot of similar language in that discourse as he does in this one. That woman who was coming back to the well day after day after day in the heat of the day to avoid the crowd because of the sin in her life, Jesus uses that pattern of behavior to make a point about something else that's going on in here, not primarily a physical thirst, but a spiritual thirst.

He said in the same way that you've been coming back to this well every single day, you've been going from one relationship to the next, seeking to find ultimate lasting fulfillment through romantic love and sexual fulfillment, and it doesn't work. Why? Because it's food that perishes. It doesn't last.

And what Jesus is suggesting is that this crowd is doing the exact same thing. And what's odd about that is that they're actually seeking Jesus. Like, on the surface, it looks pretty good. They’re enthusiastic about him. They’ve made some really good theological connections. They've just drawn some bad conclusions. Like, he is the prophet. He is the king, but they made a wrong conclusion about what that meant.

John is suggesting that just like this woman who was very obviously rebelling against God, living life on her own terms, this crowd that looks on the surface religious was doing the exact same thing. And that should serve as a great caution to you and me that it is possible to follow Jesus in a way that isn't really following Jesus. He's exposing their true motives. They're working for food, it perishes, and it doesn't last.

And here's something else that this reveals about humanity: To be human is to be hungry. You gotta eat. And just to be clear, when Jesus is talking about different kinds of food here, he's not really talking about food, have you picked up on that?

In the same way that he says to the woman, hey, anybody that drinks this water again is gonna get thirsty again, he wasn't talking about water. He was talking about a deeper satisfaction that everybody in this room craves, no matter what you believe about God. You know, I mean, you cannot live and not try to be satisfied, you just have to. You're gonna find something to eat, And whatever it is that you turn to, if it isn't God himself, it will come up short.

Perhaps the person that said this clearer than anybody else I've ever heard is CS Lewis, and he makes the point that for every human appetite, for every physical appetite that we have, there is a corresponding fulfillment in creation. If you are hungry, there's food. If you are thirsty, there's drink. But then he says this: if you find in yourself a desire for which the world does not offer a solution, the only logical conclusion is that we were made for another world.

You and I have a hunger that we cannot quench and a thirst that we cannot satisfy, and Jesus is about to let these people know, I'm the only one that can. He says, do not work for the food that perishes, and that is what all of us do, and sometimes we do it in very obvious ways, and other times we do it through religious performance and obedience, but it's really self-worship veiled in obedience. That's what these guys were doing.

Don't work for food that perishes, but, he says, the implication is work for food that endures to eternal life. And then he says this: that the Son of Man will give you, for he is the one on whom the Father has set his seal.

What does that mean? What he's saying is, God has placed his stamp of approval on me, the Son of Man. I'm the only one that has the authority to dole out this food that I'm talking about, this food that will lead to your deep satisfaction and fulfillment. The Son of Man alone is the one who can give it to you, and he's telling you, he will give it. And so they hear that, and they're drawn to it. Just like the woman said, hey, give me this water.

They want that. And so listen to what they say to Jesus. This is where so—that was the confrontation. We're now gonna get into the explanation. Jesus has just said, don't work for food that spoils, but work for food that endures. There's a different kind of food, and they hear that word work, and to them, it means earn it, just like the rich young ruler who said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And when he said that to Jesus, do you know what he was acknowledging? I don't have it, I know that I don't, because I am looking everywhere for a satisfaction and I just can't seem to find it. What must I do?

The rich ruler had reasoned that there's something I'm not doing to experience something that I think should be available to me intuitively, but I just, I don't know what it is, and I think Jesus probably knows what? Must I do. See, this is a very human response. We want a checklist, don't we? We want God to be transactional in this way—that there's something, give me the formula, I'll do it, and then you'll do your part, God.

But listen to what Jesus says, because this is not a kind of food that we earn. He says it this way: Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.

They're looking for works. What are the works that God requires? Give me the list. And Jesus says, Work. There's only one work, and the work is to believe. The work is to believe in the one that he sent. He is suggesting here, and we're gonna unpack this more in just a little bit, that the key to unlocking this satisfaction—It’s not in our effort primarily, it is in our believing.

And I would suggest to you that for our purposes today, that the invitation here is to believe what he is teaching about this bread. That if we want to experience all of the benefits that follow from this bread that He's talking about, we have to believe what Jesus says about it in order to start tasting it and experiencing it.

The work of God is to believe. And by the way, can I just say this? How is believing work? It certainly doesn't look like anything that we're doing, but how many of us, how many of you know how hard it is to stay in a posture of belief? We live in a world that is telling you every single day that everything that the Bible tells you about God and reality and yourself, it's a lie, it's a waste of time, that's primitive, that's not worth pursuing or believing. It is hard work to stay in a posture of belief.

Here's the next thing that he's going to explain. They essentially reason, well, if there's no work that we have to do, what is the work that you're gonna do that you might earn our belief? Not to mention the fact that he has just fed 5,000 people, them magically in the wilderness. That wasn't enough.

Listen to their logic. What sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What works do you perform? We'll come back to that. Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Here's their logic. Our fathers followed Moses because for forty years, he gave them bread in the wilderness. He gave them food that sustained them. And Jesus knows that there's a couple things that need to be corrected. They have a misunderstanding about Moses, first of all, and they have a misunderstanding about the manna. Let's take them in turn.

Here's what they misunderstood about Moses. He was not the source of the bread. Listen to how Jesus corrects them. He says, it was not Moses that gave you bread, but my Father. God was the one that was providing for them in the wilderness, sustaining them in the wilderness.

But listen to what Jesus does with this verb tense. He says, it was not Moses who gave, but my Father who gives. He is correcting a misunderstanding about Moses, first of all, but then he brings them into the presence. In the same way that he said, it's not works, it's a work. Moses didn't—Moses wasn't the one that gave. My Father gives.

And then he uses this phrase: my Father gives you true bread. Whenever Jesus uses that word true to qualify something, he's gonna do it in John 15, the true vine. What it means is that there's something that vine points to that is a greater spiritual reality.

And what he's suggesting here is that they misunderstood something about the manna—that he is the true bread, that what they were supposed to see in the manna was not the food itself, but what it pointed to. That it was always pointing beyond itself to a greater spiritual reality that is standing in front of them now as that which the manna pointed to.

We said it this way a couple weeks ago: he's not only the greater Moses, he is the greater manna, to be feasted upon and experienced and satisfied by and enjoyed.

They misunderstood something about Moses and then they misunderstood something about manna. Jesus says, let's see, it was not Moses who gave you the bread, but my Father who gives you true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Can I tell you that is such a logical, I love this? What Jesus is telling them is there is a kind of food available to you that only I can give you, and when you taste it, it is so much better than what the world offers, which is food that perishes, but this is food that lasts and it endures to eternal life. And they say, we'll take it, please.

In other words, when they say give us this bread always, it's gonna, it reads funny, but what they're saying is, why would I ever eat anything else when this is available? Why would I ever choose a different meal when I could eat the bread that satisfies fully and finally and completely every time, and it never stops? Give me this bread always.

And here comes the invitation. And this is where things take a turn because they don't like it, and here's where they start to get disillusioned, disappointed, and it eventually leads to their desertion. It's because of what Jesus is about to say next in verse 35, which wasn't part of our passage, but which we're going to steal.

Jesus says this: I am the bread. The food that I'm talking about, it's not something, it's someone. The bread of God is a he. It is someone you have a relationship with. It is he who comes down to heaven to give life to the world. And here's what he promises you about the bread:

He who comes to me will never be hungry. And if you could read that in the Greek, it is so emphatic. It's like never, never, ever be hungry. And he says, he who comes to me or he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

And we've already spent so much time talking about the first benefit of this bread, which is just ultimate satisfaction. And can I tell you something? You are desperate for it. You're looking for it. Christians and non-Christians alike. I think it was GK Chesterton that said, the man knocking on the brothel door is looking for Jesus.

See, this ache that causes you to run to all kinds of places, all kinds of different wells, it is an ache, an eternal ache for Christ who is better. He's more satisfying than any experience you could have in his life. He just is. That is the plain meaning of this miracle. It is the consistent claim throughout all of Scripture that He tastes better. He is more satisfying. He is.

But I want you to notice too the verbs attached to this experience. He who comes to me will never be hungry. He who believes in me will never be thirsty. The two things that we are to do are to come to him and believe in him. And when you read it in English, it almost sounds like a one-time thing. You take a sip, you'll never be thirsty. It's like a one-time event, and that's not what it means because in the Greek, the verb tenses. Harrison would do a much better job explaining this than I could. But what you see is that this is a perpetual ongoing belief. It is more appropriate to say, whoever is coming to me over and over again, and whoever is in a perpetual and consistent posture of believing.

We talked about for John that in his Gospel, genuine belief always becomes believing. It is a, it's a posture, no matter what life throws at me, that I would be believing, believing, believing he's better.

I want to give you an example of this. Anybody heard the name Johnny Erickson Tada? I recently heard a podcast where somebody was asked, who's the most joy filled person you've ever met in your life? And their answer was Johnny Erickson Tada. I've actually had the privilege of meeting Johnny. She spoke at a Young Life All Staff Conference, and I'm just telling you, there's something unique about this woman. And for those of you that don't know about her, I want to tell you a little bit about her story.

When she was 17 years old, I mean, she was this bright kid with a bright future, pretty, athletic, tons of friends, and one day, she's with her sister in the ocean and she dives in and her head hits the ground. It was shallower than she realized, and the byproduct of that accident is that she would never again move her legs or her arms. She's paralyzed.

This is her shortly after. That's all she could do. And she talks about this when she gives her testimony about just the helplessness of laying there. And you know what happened in that moment? Instantly, all of her dreams for her own life went out the window, vanished, gone.

I've heard Johnny describe it this way: that her disability, that her injury, and the reality that it led to, became her edge. Here's why. Because all of her dreams for her life are food that perishes. Don't you let that sink in for a second. Everything that Johnny lost now, listen, it would be fair. In fact, I would understand if Johnny was like, I don't wanna live anymore. Just take me out. There's nothing left worth living for unless what Jesus said is true—that even when I'm confined to this wheelchair and I can't use my hands, I'm not gonna be able to play all the sports that I love. I'll never be able to hold a baby in my arms. Life isn't worth living unless the audacious claim that Jesus makes is actually true—that there's something to feast upon when everything else has been taken away.

And it doesn't just make life durable, endurable. It's the most satisfying thing even for someone who's in a wheelchair like this and like this. Johnny decided, I'm gonna believe it. I'm just gonna take Him at His word that even though I can't pursue any of the food that perishes, I'm gonna choose to believe that there is a different kind of bread that leads to a better satisfaction. And it does. And she's proof.

Here's why this is so hard to believe: this, because what Johnny had to deal with is this—everything that I longed for but will never experience or everything that in God's sovereignty has been removed from me. Christ is better. He's better than what I'll never get, he's better than what he's taken away, and each opportunity in life, each circumstance is a chance for us to say, I'm just gonna believe him. I'm disappointed, but I'm going to take him at his word. Just like the disciples who had 12 basketfuls left over, each one of them had one. It was a living example of how he is not just enough, but more than enough. They’d look into that basket, I guarantee you, so many times in life, they remembered holding that and thought, you know what? This does, this feels dark and bleak, but he's enough, he's more than enough.

The Final Promise and Our Response

There's one more thing as we close. There's one more benefit to the bread that I want you to catch because it is true that He is the most satisfying thing we can experience in this life, but there's actually something more important and better. When we did our series on Philippians, you know, in Philippians three, where Paul is just talking about how incredible it is to follow Christ, that he's traded everything in that he might gain Christ, and Paul is trying to compel you that it's worth the trade, make that trade.

Tim had a sermon where he said, as true as all of that is, he is more satisfying than everything else, but that's not even the best thing that he gives. The best thing that he gives is access to the life to come.

Jesus is gonna make the case here that your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. And what he means by that is, the stakes are not just dissatisfaction, the stakes are death, destruction, judgment. We don't like talking about this too often. In fact, you might be here thinking, oh my gosh, I can't stand it when pastors talk about sin and destruction and death and hell. But listen, friends, those are the stakes.

See, the ultimate binary is not just satisfaction or emptiness, it is life or death. And what Jesus is saying here is I am the only way to gain access, not just to deeper satisfaction, but to salvation. You are desperate for it. You might be here today and think, you know what, the satisfaction stuff doesn't really appeal to me because I'm pretty happy, my life's pretty good, but can I tell you something? Apart from Christ, you will perish forever, and forever is longer than we could possibly imagine.

What Jesus is offering is food that endures to life forever. It is joy forever, satisfaction forever, and it is being held up against not just emptiness, but death. What will you choose today? Jesus has come that we might have life, a rich, full life, but a life that lasts forever.

Taste and see that he is good. Will you take Him at His word?

Conclusion

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this scripture that invites us to deeply consider the reality that we might unknowingly be consuming food that perishes. And Lord, we thank you for people like Johnny Erickson Tada, who have gone before us and who have dared to believe that the things you actually said are true—that when all of life is stripped away, you are still enough, more than enough.