Sermon
Jesus said, I Am The Bread Of Life (Part 1)
January 13, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Today we've come to John chapter 6, and we begin reading at verse 30. Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give 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." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

Let's stop there because that's about as far as we'll get today. In the commencing words of our notes I say, Ah! It is a text with a hundred sermons! And it really is. When we finish this sixth chapter of John in the next few months, you're going to be amazed at the tremendous truths that Jesus had to say. Declarations, doctrines, unsearchable truths...they are all here in our text. So let's begin.

Jesus had just answered the crowd's question..."What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Now let's stop there. You remember in our lesson, as we move from verse to verse, on this occasion Jesus had fed 5000. And then, after the feeding of the 5000, they want to make him king, and he thwarts their plans. He sends the disciples by boat back across the lake. He gets rid of the crowd or disburses them and then he goes to the mountain to pray. Then later in the evening at 3:00 in the morning he comes walking on the water. He doesn't need a boat. He crosses the lake walking on the water.

This crowd realizes Jesus is gone and the disciples have already left. So they decide they're going to find out where Jesus had gone to. And during that night, during the storm, other little ships had come to that little haven to probably get out of the storm, and so there are quite a lot of ships sitting there in the bay; so this crowd gets in these ships and across the sea they go looking for Jesus, and when they get to Jesus, they ask him the question, How did you get here? They didn't know he walked on the water across that lake.

Jesus didn't answer their question directly, he said, you don't seek me because of the sign. You don't seek me for spiritual reasons. You just seek me because you got your tummy filled. Very selfish. Now I suggested last Lord's Day he didn't say it that way. He must have rebuked them in such a way that in gentleness and love, even though he's telling them their motive is selfish, yet their hearts are still open because in just a few moments of time they say, well then Jesus please tell us what we've got to do to please God. And you remember the lesson we took home last week is that all of us in life come to moments of confrontation, sometimes as parents, oft times as a pastor. Times when we're called to confront an issue, sometimes rebuke; but may it always be done in a spirit of kindness so that we don't close the door on the person that we reprimanded or rebuked. And I have done that at times, and I have asked Jesus to forgive me.

Sometimes I'm very harsh, all of us are. Sometimes raising our children the harshness separates our children from us. They don't feel an openness to come back and to heal whatever needs to be healed. There's always the responsibility of confrontation, but may we do it in a Christ-like way; always keeping the door open for healing and for growth in our friendship. So that's the reason. And so, the question is, and what shall we do to do the works of God? And the reply that Jesus gave them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Now this is the thing that will be acceptable to God, or which you are to do in order to be saved. Jesus did not tell them they had nothing to do, or that they were to sit down and wait, but that there was a work to perform, and that was a duty that was imperative.

I'm down at the bottom of the page there. It was to believe on the Messiah, and He was the Messiah. And therefore He is saying you must believe in Me to do the works of God. Leave your page right there just for a minute because that's an interesting answer. Now if you're in the crowd that day and Jesus said, now the works of God is that you must believe. So the heart of the instruction is, what does it mean to believe? And how we define belief will define how we're going to react to what Jesus said we must do.

Well when we go through the New Testament, you'll find that to believe means to hold something as so true that the truth of that, whatever it is, will have its transforming...it will affect me personally. In other words, to believe something so deeply that it affects my behavior and my life. Was it John that said, when we believe that that day will come when we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is, and he that hath this hope within him purifieth himself even as he is pure? What John is saying is if we all believe with all of our hearts that at 3:00 this afternoon we're going to meet Jesus face-to-face, we'd handle the next three hours probably differently. But that's what John is saying. If we really believe what we believe, that Christ could come at any moment, then that belief will transform our behavior to be Christ-like.

I went to the Oxford English dictionary for a definition of faith, and this is what they said; it's confidence, it's reliance, it's trust, it's belief preceding from reliance on testimony or authority. It's the duty of fulfilling one's trust, the allegiance owed to a superior, the quality of fulfilling one's trust in faithfulness, fidelity, and loyalty. That's faith. It's not static.

If I truly have a faith, a saving faith, in Jesus Christ, then I will want to be loyal to him. I will want to be obedient to him. I will want to make sure that I'm the best disciples that I could be. I want my life and my value system to always bring honor to him. Faith produces works; works that prove I have faith.

Now let's stop there. I want to talk with you just for a moment about a real controversy in Christendom today amongst evangelicals. You'll hear about it as you read certain religious literature. But here's the controversy. It's the controversy between no lordship salvation and lordship salvation.

You say, what's that Pastor? The no lordship salvationists hold that to believe simply means to give ascent to the fact: the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. And once I do that nothing else is required because if I add anything to it allegiance, loyalty, repentance, then I've added works to the simplicity of just believing, and therefore I have mutilated the whole concept of salvation. In other words, the no lordship says just admit, just acknowledge, give mental ascent to the fact that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and that saves you. No change required, because if you work at changing then you've added works to salvation, and now, you're wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's the reason why in much of Christendom today, even in evangelical circles, you have such a frothy quality of Christian discipleship; because it's premised on one simple statement: yeah, I believe Jesus is the divine Son of God, and I joined a church, my name is on the ledger, I went into the tank, and it's all settled. Nothing else is required. Really, that's their logic. No lordship. And if you add anything, allegiance, trust, love, obedience, discipleship, commitment, repentance, these are all works, and therefore, as a result, you have done away with the simplicity of simply believing.

But it's the way you define belief. If belief is having a faith in something so deep, and faith always requires an object, and our object of faith is Jesus Christ. So Christ being the object of my faith then I will want with all of my heart to serve him. And as the result of that, it results in works that identify the fact that my faith is genuine. It has changed me. It's affected by behavior. It's given me a new value system. It's given me a new purpose for living. It's given me a new goal for eternity, and because of that it does affect my life.

Jesus said, not everyone (Matthew 7:21) who says Lord, Lord, will make it into the kingdom of heaven. But who will get there? He that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. And just before that in verse 20, Jesus said, by their fruits you will know them. So Jesus is saying that true faith results in a changed life that does produce fruit, and it's the fruit that proves your faith is valid. Ask James. James in his letter says faith without works is dead. Whatever you say with your mouth if it's not lived out in your life, it's zilch. And in the church today you have this simple...just make mental ascent, and they have so abbreviated and so twisted, and so misunderstood the biblical meaning of the word belief, that as a result, those people who think they are Christians are not, and they live their lives apart from a dedication and a commitment to Jesus Christ.

Now that crowd that day knew what Jesus required of them. Jesus said the work of God is to believe. They knew that Jesus was requiring their loyalty, their allegiance, their love, their commitment, their all. They knew what he wanted. That they've got to react. And here's their reaction: they say, Jesus, if you want that kind of trust from us, that kind of commitment, that kind of loyalty, that kind of allegiance, then you have got to do a better job of proving that you're worthy of our trust. You've got to do another sign.

Now just remember, they'd been with Jesus the day before. They watched him take that little handful of fish and bread and multiply it to feed 5000. That should have been evidence enough that he was the messiah. But they are saying, Jesus, yesterday was yesterday and we did have lunch, but if you're really who you say you are then you'll do the same thing that Moses did; you'll give us bread from heaven.

Moses gave bread in the wilderness. You ought to do the same as Moses. Now listen to their logic. Jesus takes a few fish and some bread and feeds 5000. They pick up a dozen baskets. So what--is what they are saying. Jesus, if you can do what Moses did, we'll believe you.

Historians tell us that there are approximately 2 million people who left Egypt, and there were 2 million people out there in the wilderness traveling around eating food. So when God showered food from heaven, which the manna was, and the Lord willing next week we'll get into chapter 16 of Exodus and we'll find out about this manna, but God, in response to their call, showers manna, which was little white wafers, right at their tent door. And he did it for 40 years.

Now my mind is a calculating mind and they tell us that God says now you go out and collect one omer of manna each day. Now an omer is the equivalent of two quarts. And when you take the liquid weight of two quarts you'll find out that the manna that fell from heaven each day amounted to 9 million pounds: that's 4500 tons or 30 boxcars loaded with 15 tons each. Every day for 40 years. Jesus, if you want us to believe in you, you'll do the same thing that Moses...just remember, we have lunch yesterday - we've gone without supper, we've gone without breakfast - at least you could give us another lunch. Moses fed them for 40 years. Boxcars full of it. Bread cooked in the ovens of heaven by angels.

Jesus, give us the reason why you want us to trust in you. That's quite human. If you're going to trust someone you ought to at least know their credentials. Right? So say - a doctor. The last few weeks I've been having a little pain in the bottom of my foot. So I decided I'm going to go see a podiatrist. The first time in all my lifetime. So I pick up the phone and make my appointment. So I go to the doctor, the first thing I do I look around and make sure he's got his degrees, (pastor chuckles) is board certified, he's a podiatrist of California. I know he's pretty well documented.

But you see, 60 years ago I worked in a drugstore, and 60 years ago a doctor looked like a doctor. He dressed in pinstripes, white smock, just precise. That's my idea of a doctor. You go to a doctor's office today and you don't know whether you're dealing with the janitor or the...(Congregation laughs) I mean, he doesn't dress professionally (Pastor laughs). I'm so old-fashioned I want a doctor to look like a doctor.

So I've surveyed, and I understand some of the credentials, and sure enough this man walks out - beautiful white hair, mustache, white smock, (congregation laughs) so I feel at home already. He's got the credentials. So we go into his little office there and he's got my foot up in his hand and I say, doctor, how long have you been doing this? He said, pastor, for 52 years. And then he looked up and said something, he said, you know pastor, I don't have any clients all I've got are friends. He could have done anything to my foot (congregation laughs) because he had authenticated himself as a person in whom I could trust. He was now--I was his friend.

So it's very normal. What they're saying to Jesus, if you're going to expect us to believe in you, give us a more evidence. Yesterday wasn't enough.

Now in your notes, I think it's page 3, and I'll quickly bring this to a close. I took that spiritual lesson and said, you know, we live in a world where the evidence of God's creative power is about us, and around us, all over us. The majesty of the stars, the planets in their courses, the beauty of a rose, a butterfly - who needs to be proven there is a God? All the world proves it. And yet we've got these foolish people traveling down these avenues of supposed intellectualism still trying to find out where it all came from.

Old Jastrow, the great astronomer from NASA, wrote a book, he's not a believer but he's pretty close to it. He said, when we astronomers get through with all of our searching and climb the highest hills and we just think we've really got now the answer, when we look over the hill, he said, we'll see a bunch of Christians sitting there with their Bible. They had the answer all the time. He's right, and yet, the world is filled with unbelief still trying to prove that there is a God who made this world.

Let me put that down into personal life. You know, as Christians we live with the evidence of God's sustaining grace and his love, and time and time and time again he has proven his care for us. And then we come to a difficult time in life, and the first thing we want to do is for him to give us some more evidence that he's God. Right? God if you'll just do this for me, I can really believe in you then. Right?

I read a book many years ago by Os Guinness the great, brilliant, English scholar and his book was entitled "God in the Dark". It's a marvelous book - probably the finest on the subject of doubt. Mr. Guinness says, our problem is we take the issue at hand and we isolate it apart from the history of the past. Here's my problem--here's my problem. But if I just leave it sit there and go back and say, God, we've been on this journey for a number of years and I've been there before and you solved it, you blessed it, you answered this way, and when I start counting up all the wonderful events and thanking God and counting my blessings and naming them one by one, it does surprise me what the Lord has done when I come to this point. Now it's in the context of a faithful God who has never let me down. I don't need his proof anymore. I don't need a new evidence that he's God for me to believe. I just know that he's always been faithful and this issue, he'll resolve it too. I don't need any further proof of God.

Many years ago, when our church was quite small, my background is a background of business and as a result I have a deep sensitivity to how business people look at our church. I want them to respect to this church. We pay our bills. We're Christian in the way we handle ourselves within the community, and I strive for that with all my heart because I know what a businessman, oft times the suspicion and the skepticism that business people look at church people, and look at churches. I know that. So I have worked at this whole issue of always wanting the community to think highly of our church, that we are Christian in all of our business procedures. And so, we pay our bills always on time. In fact, we have a policy that when a bill comes in, usually within 72 hours, there's a check. We don't wait till the end of the month to pay our bills. We pay them three times a week. Because I want in that way to say to these businessman, those people are Christian and I respect it. In fact, I got a letter the other day and said, Pastor, we don't have a finer client; we always know when we send your bill we'll have our check back in three days.

So we've written out these checks and got the envelopes, and I'm standing at the mailbox; that's when we were in Daly City. And I know how much those checks that up to, and I'm standing there saying, God, you we don't have these funds but you know that I don't want to ever bring shame to your name, so I'm going to put these envelopes in the mail and I'm just going to trust you. So I dropped the envelopes in the mail. Then, I reached down with my key to open up the big box, which is box 'B', and ladies and gentlemen, I don't know where the check came from. I think it may have been a refund from insurance check or something. I don't know what it was. But it was the exact amount to the penny of the total of those checks. I took it to the bank. The checks were covered. But I stood there and cried, and said, God, help me never to doubt you again. You've so proven that you're attentive, that you love me. You love the church. Don't ever let me ever again fear when we come to a difficulty - that doesn't mean we haven't come to them. But every time we come there, I go back to Daly City, 38 years ago, standing in front of a post office box, and in the context of that I have peace and God doesn't have to prove himself all over again to me.

We're much like that crowd, aren't we? They forgot that yesterday he fed 5000 with a couple little fish and some bread. Isn't it interesting how we forget what God did for us yesterday? We're just like those Israelites. But if we put life in the context, the issue and the context of a faithful God who has been with us and watches over us, the issue today is not even an issue.

I had a man sitting in one of the services; he's out of a job. Others of you are going through that same time. But you go back, stop, and say that's what the problem is, but here's the way God has handled it always in the past, and in his own time, and I don't have to have any more proof that he's God because I believe it with all my heart. Right?

Now with this I've got to close. Did you notice how quick Jesus was to correct them? He said you've got it all wrong. Moses didn't give you that bread, my Father did. And that opens up the subject we want to talk about next week.

Father in heaven, would you help us to not be like that crowd; always requesting you to prove yourself all over again when we find ourselves in a difficult moment. You're God. We're yours. You love us. You've always cared for us and you always will. And in that simple trust we find peace in the midst of our storm. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.