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This sermon was preached on Sunday 9/09/2001 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
In our previous sermon on the Gospel of John I asked the question, ‘are you searching for Jesus?’ If we were to list each person’s reasons for seeking Jesus there would have been many various reasons why people were, and are seeking after Jesus. There are many people searching for Jesus in order to answer some temporal longing, as the people in John 6 sought after Jesus. For the Jews it was the satisfaction of hunger and curiosity, for others it is the quietening of an accusing conscience, or a seeking after a purpose of belonging. Yet after these longings have been answered, there still remains an unanswered longing inside each one.
What Jesus sought to instruct us upon last time was the need to stop pursuing the mere temporal satisfactions, and to strive after that which satisfies for eternity, which is a satisfaction that answers the eternal longings of the human heart, for remember God has put eternity into your heart (Ecc 3:11). You are to labour at gaining this satisfaction, above all other satisfactions. It is this satisfaction that you must strive after and which you must pursue with all of your being, for you must have it or you perish. You must use all the Biblical means at your disposal to seek after this satisfaction, and then not rest easy when you have it in your sight. You must reach out and take this satisfaction for yourself, taking it by holy violence as Matthew 11:12 tells us.
Now this raises the question of, ‘what must I do in order to have this satisfaction? When I understand what it is that satisfies for eternity, and when I see the great need I have for it, what should I do to possess it for myself? What should I do to be saved?’ Is this the question that you now ask? Do you desire to have the eternal longing of your soul satisfied? Is this the great yearning of your heart?
The Jews that heard Jesus that day in the synagogue were caught up in all that Jesus was saying, and they too desired to know how they might possess this eternal satisfaction. But these Jews that were before Him did not understand what Jesus was driving at at all, for they were heading down the wrong track entirely. They continued to think of earthly ideals and temporal solutions as their answer clearly implies.
‘Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God (Jn 6:28)?’
That the Jews had a great desire for this satisfaction we can plainly see, and we know from Romans that the Jews generally had a great desire for God, for Paul says, ‘For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom 10:2,3).’ And this is what we see in our text here this morning - they had this great desire for God, yet they didn’t really understand what Jesus was on about at all.
When Jesus told them to labour for it, their first thought was toward law-works, and of establishing their own righteousness before God. Their question is not an indication of wanting to be as God is, doing His works, but how they might merit their own acceptance with God. They were seeking for the right method that they could adopt in order to please God, and this Jesus seemed to know what that method was. All of their previous methods and works had failed to answer the great longing of their souls, and so they were still searching for that illusive method whereby they could establish their own righteousness before God.
This you see is the problem with so many that are seeking after salvation at this very moment. I mean not just here, but everywhere. Everytime you hear a sermon preached, a Bible study given, or a person bearing witness to the way of salvation and the truth of God, your first thought is, ‘now I will find out more information about what I need to do in order to merit acceptance with God. Now I will find out for sure what I need to do.’ You have heard the offer of mercy through Jesus Christ alone, received through faith alone, yet you have not accepted that free offer of grace. Though you have heard this a hundred times, even thousands of times, you still look for a way to establish your own acceptance and righteousness with God. ‘Perhaps it is some religious ritual that I don’t yet know about, perhaps some word formula that I need to confess or utter, perhaps there is something that I need to give up or something that I yet need to do, or perhaps some service that God needs me to render for Him?’
All these sorts of questions betray an ignorance and lack of understanding of the requirements for spiritual satisfaction and salvation, for they center on self. They contain the idea of a self-salvation, which is a concept that is impossible to attain to, for self-salvation is not possible because of sin. You are incapable of making any headway toward the attainment of your own righteousness and a position of acceptance with God based upon your efforts and merit, for you are a slave to sin who cannot and will not do any spiritual good. Every attempt that is made to establish this self-righteousness fails to satisfy the longings of the human soul, for self-merit and human works will never do it. Hear this sinner, you are unable to save yourself, for your sin problem is too great. You need the salvation that God gives, and what you need to know is the way that you are able to receive this gift is from His hand. You cannot establish your own righteousness!
What did Jesus say in response to the Jewish question? Did He give them a list of works that they could do? What does He say to them?
‘Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (Jn 6:29).’
Can you picture the Jews with their notepads and pens at the ready, ‘OK, we’re ready to jot down all of your directions that we might do all these works of merit and establish our own righteousness before God. What is it we need to do?’ What happens? Jesus gives them an answer that is not really a work at all, but simply a receiving of a gift by faith. ‘You want work to do, then this salvation is not the work you want, for all you need do here is take hold of that which God gives.’ Hear Paul in Romans 4:5, ‘But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.’
All you need to do is simply accept the free gift of God that He offers to you, and then the righteousness of God is put to your account as though it were your own. All you need to do is believe ‘in Him whom He sent.’ You need to trust implicitly in the One that God has sent and in Him alone. You need to entrust the satisfaction of that longing to Him, and to rest in Him as the satisfaction of God for that longing. All that He is is what you exercise faith in, both His Person and His work.
‘But that’s not a work, that’s a taking hold of what someone else has done on my behalf.’ Yes, that’s right. What God expects from you sinner, is simply to exercise faith in the answer that He has provided for your souls greatest longing, and that answer is wrapped up in the One that He has sent, even Jesus. It is man’s work only in so much as He is to believe in Jesus as the One who has merited salvation for Him, and in that sense it is no work at all but a gift that is freely received through the instrumentality of faith.
‘But surely I have to do something?’ Yes you do - believe! The gift is offered to all men without exception, but it is eternal life only to those who believe, and so you must take hold of this offered salvation by faith. You will not have this satisfaction without faith in the One that the Father has sent to establish it. Sinner, you must believe in order to ‘work the works of God.’
‘They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work (6:30)?’
Well the answer that Jesus gave to their inquiry was not one they liked. Their interest in what Jesus had to say had now gone from interested to down right scorn, ‘Who are You that we should listen to You? Prove Yourself to us that we might believe what You have to say. What can You do to validate Your claim of coming from God?’ They were happy to hear what Jesus would say when a work was required, but when a gift is on offer they don’t like what they hear, such is the pain of injured pride and the vanity of self-righteousness.
You see these Jews recognized that Jesus was calling Himself the messenger from God, but what they wanted now was proof that this claim was authentic. And what is it that they seek as proof of Jesus’ claims - a sign. They want Jesus to perform a sign on que to their demands. A sign that would provide unequivocal proof that He was the messenger of God.
How many times have you heard people want to see this same sort of thing today. ‘If someone came back from the dead, then I would believe. Show mw some proof and then I will take seriously what you have to say.’ Yet such people see sinners back from the dead all the time, for Christians are they who have been raised to new life in Christ, the old life being laid aside. There are these signs of God at work all the time, yet unbelievers that witness the changed lives of the saints still do not believe.
Perhaps it is so with you this morning? You say you are just waiting for sure proof that all that I say is true, some sort of sign perhaps? But all this is is a fob off. It’s a smokescreen to cover your own sin and unbelief, for you have no intention of abandoning your life of sin and entrenched unbelief.
The Jews had witnessed a sign pointing to Jesus as the Christ, as the One elected and appointed as the Servant of God in the saving of sinners, yet they did not believe. It is likely that these people had witnessed that great sign of the previous day in the feeding of the 5000 plus, yet they had not recognized the testimony of God in pointing out His Son to a lost nation.
‘What sign will You perform ... what work will You work?’ ‘You want to tell us how we may be saved, how we may do the works of God, then prove Yourself as One that can be trusted and as One who speaks with Divine authority.’
‘Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat (6:31).’
According to the Jews, with their own twisted idea of law works as the way to righteousness and the works of God, Moses proved his Divine authority by giving bread from heaven. ‘You make a claim to divine authority, yet all You do is give us earthly bread, Moses gave us bread from heaven. If you are greater then Moses, then you will need to do something greater than Moses to prove Yourself.’
Can you follow the reasoning of the Jews? They will stick to their own version of salvation based on ignorance and a misunderstanding of the law because Moses gave them bread from heaven. Jesus was not on the same level as Moses because the bread He gave was of an earthly nature. How blind and ignorant is that claim? Was it Moses that gave Israel the manna? Was it a spiritual food? Did it satisfy for eternity?
From nothing Jesus brings into existence bread that was not previously there, while Moses as God’s spokesperson simply gave instructions concerning the manna that God provided, instructions that Moses simply mediated to the people, and it was a food which though coming from the direction of heaven was still simply food. I say again, what blind ignorance from the Jews. What was the response of Jesus to such foolishness?
‘Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world (6:32,33).’
What does Jesus do? Firstly He works at gaining their attention once again, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you.’ These are the Words of divine authority that penetrate into the heart. ‘Listen you people, here is the truth of the matter, I will now tell you what it is.’ This is the cutting sword of God’s Word, slicing deeply into the heart and into the conscience. Jesus is bringing to bear upon these deceived Jews, the truth of what happened out their in those wilderness years and exposing their religion as vanity and a chasing after the wind.
What Moses gave to the Israelites was not heavenly bread, but a physical substance designed to satisfy a mere physical and temporal hunger, and that’s all it was for. Yes it came from the direction of heaven, but it was no heavenly food or spiritual satisfaction, but a mere temporal answer to a temporal problem.
Secondly, it wasn’t even Moses that gave you this bread, it was God. Moses was the God appointed leader of the nation, who mediated between God and the people, and who as prophet to the nation of Israel spoke God’s Word and instructions to them on God’s behalf. But it was God who gave this temporal food to the nation, using Moses as His spokesman at the time Moses performed no supernatural work in the issue of the manna. This was God’s work for man.
But the most important point of all in that episode is this, what was given to the people then did not and could not meet the eternal longing of the soul, for it was not its function or purpose. But that which does answer this longing is the true heavenly bread, and this the Father is now offering to you. That which is the true, genuine, authentic bread from heaven, the Father is now offering to the people of Israel. The manna was not the true bread from heaven. It can be argued that the manna was a type of the true bread from heaven, but in itself it was not the true bread from heaven.
The manna provided no spiritual relief from sin, it answered no longing of the heart and souls, and gave no satisfaction to eternal needs. It was a physical substance provided by God to meet the physical need of Israel over the period of their wilderness wanderings.
It’s important to note that Jesus does not identify just what this bread from heaven is at this point. Verse 33 is not a good translation as verse 34 makes clear, for the Jews did not yet recognize Jesus as being identified as the Bread of life. All that Jesus says to this point is that the Father gives the true bread from heaven and not Moses, a point designed to once again capture the attention of the Jews and to stir up their interest. It really is a similar situation to that of the woman at the well in chapter four, and is therefore another example of wise evangelism.
What Jesus is saying here in verses 32 and 33, is that God is currently offering this heavenly bread to the Jews. These people wanted to know about the way of obtaining righteousness with God, a righteousness that is obtained by faith according to Jesus, and that in He whom the Father has sent. Jesus is therefore moving toward the place where He will offer Himself, the Bread of life as the Object of faith.
The bread that really satisfies the greatest longings of the human heart and soul is that which the Father now offers to sinners. Note the importance of how Jesus answers the Jews at this point, for though the bread of heaven is offered to the Jews at that moment, it is also being continually offered to the world. This way of satisfaction is for the entire world and not just for the Jews.
You people who long for the satisfaction of this great yearning of the human heart have only to look here for it, even to the bread of life that the Father gives to the world. Yes, it is offered to the whole world and to you as being part of the world. It is offered to you this morning sinner, what will you do with this offer of satisfying your greatest need, without price and without money? Will you continue to knock back what is the sole answer to your greatest need? Will you continue to reject that which will give eternal satisfaction to your soul?
Here is the way of life, it is though the taking and eating of this bread. If you do not eat of this bread then you will die, is that not what is implied by this bread giving life to the world? You will die eternally, in the spiritual sense, being totally separated from God forever in that place of eternal punishment and wrath without partaking of this bread by faith. Can you afford to not take and eat of this bread? Oh sinner, consider carefully what you do with this bread, for it is life to him who believes.
For the Jews who heard Jesus speak, these were words that captured their hearing and desire. They just couldn’t believe what was on offer, bread that would allow them to really live and to go on living in a physical sense. Some more free food was on offer, and so they ask for it from Jesus.
‘Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread (6:34).’
Here is the same response of the woman at the well to Jesus offer of water that keeps one from thirsting. It is sheer ignorance and a lack of understanding. Here are people caught up with the mundane and with the earthly. They cannot get their minds past the things of this world. All they see on offer is something that will make their lives on this earth more pleasant and convenient.
What about you today? What do you see on offer? Do you see the answer to your greatest longing on offer? Are you waiting to hear words of life, of bread that will give you eternal life and righteousness before God? Do you want this more than anything else? Then strive to gain it by faith. Use the Biblical means to get a clear handle on just what this bread is that is on offer from God, and when you know what it is - eat it.
Next week we will consider more closely the Bread of Life, and what it means to eat of this Bread. Amen.
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