Sunday Gathering - John 6 : 22-59 - Andy Holingum - Sermon Only

Good morning everybody, nice to see you, we're awake, good, we're not sure, okay so we're

continuing looking at the Gospel of John this morning, you remember that's the fourth account

we got of the life of Jesus, we're in chapter six which is a bit of a huge chapter, okay this is a

bit massive this morning, we've got 40 verses in about 20 minutes so that'll be exciting but also

they cover some really big issues about why Jesus came and what he was about in a way that we haven't

seen before as we've gone through the book of John so if you've got a bible with you please do turn

to John chapter 6 but otherwise Graham if we can get the first set of verses on the screen that'd

be brilliant and the way I want to do this is just to go through reading a chunk at a time and talking

a little bit about each of the words that that we read this morning this is a little bit like one

of those movies, do you watch those movies where you think you've got a handle on what's

happening in the film? You understand the main characters, you think you know what the

plot's about, and then all of a sudden, something happens, and you think, what? I thought I

knew what was going on here. And you pause, you press pause, right? And then you chat

to the person you're with and say, I thought this, who are they? What's going on now? I

don't understand. And then you use the rewind button, don't you, to go back and watch it

again and think have I got this right have I got this right well this chapter and these verses

are all about that all right and we all we will all need to stop press pause rewind and reread

it again to understand it and I would encourage you in your groups when you meet in midweek

if you're looking at these what we talk about on Sunday mornings do this with chapter six because

it is so eye-opening for what we are about here and what's going on and what we're seeing in

this passage is Jesus being revealing what he's about and challenging the people who are listening

to him about what he is really here for and it's exactly the same today people think Jesus is a

myth people think Jesus is just a man and a lot of us here think Jesus is the messiah and what we're

seeing in this chapter is Jesus talks to his hearers as he's moving people from their in their

limited understanding from what they think he's about to what he's really about and he Jesus is

doing exactly the same today for you for me for the people in the community it's about moving us

from one position to another and as we read this passage he starts to turn the heat up on who he is

why he has come and what our response to him needs to be and he starts to get a little uncomfortable

as we'll see but the interesting thing i just noticed the passage we're going to read is from

chapter 6 verses 26 onwards as you can see on the screen but just before we get here you will

remember what's happened is we've had the feeding of the 5,000 at the beginning of chapter 6 we're

like that don't we it's a good story it's a great miracle and we love it then we have the walking on

the water bit and we're like that because that's another great miracle of Jesus now we get what

Jesus is doing here he's connecting those two events with why he has come and he's taking his

hearers from understanding what happened in the feeding of the 5,000 to actually why he has come

and the challenge of that on his life but after the feeding of the 5,000 all the crowds they want

to find out where he is and so they're hunting for him and we read just in verse 24 once the crowd

realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were where they were they got into boats and they went

to Capernaum in search of Jesus so all those people that have been fed from those five loaves

and two fish those thousands they got into boats and must have been like an armada going across the

sea of galilee as they hunt jesus down and they're looking for him when we read they came in search

of jesus then when we skip to after our passage and this is morning we get to verse 66 we read

this from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him so we go from

thousand searching for Jesus to a place where many are saying this is too hard I can't follow Jesus

what has he said in the middle what has he done in the middle and that's what we're going to

read right now so let's start when they found him on the other side of the lake they asked him

rabbi when did you get here Jesus answered very truly I tell you you're looking for me not because

you saw the signs i performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill do not work for food

that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give you for on him

god the father has placed his approval and so jesus starts them on this journey of moving them

from thinking about the practical things to understanding about spiritual things he starts

them on a journey from taking something they use in their everyday life and they know about

to actually using that to explain what Jesus is about.

Because we all struggle to grasp issues of the eternal, don't we?

It's not just me, please, is it?

We all struggle to understand it.

So Jesus has to take very common things that we do understand and we know

and use those to explain what he is saying.

But he's also saying this.

he's saying don't spend your life being focused on the very physical things of this world.

Don't spend your whole life pursuing food that spoils, clothes that wear out, houses that suck

your money, savings for a rainy day, cars that rust. Don't spend your life pursuing stuff, stuff,

stuff, the next fix, the next fix, the next fix. Why? Because they never ultimately meet the need

of your life. They never ultimately meet the need that you think they are going to. Instead Jesus is

saying here we need to focus on the food that Jesus is going to give us and he's going to explain that

in the verses ahead. In other words we should be about pursuing Jesus and allowing him to change

our life, to change our values, to change the way that we think about things. And what he's beginning

to say is if you think that all that matters is actually these 70 years i'm on this planet or

give or take then actually we're completely missing the point and what he's explaining

to us here is there is an eternity which goes on and on and on and our life in comparison to

eternity is smaller than that and we worry about what we're doing in this bit and yet what jesus

is saying there's all of this to come and it's not just about length it's about quality as well

and it starts the day we encounter him and he's challenging his hearers stop prioritizing so much

on spending time thinking what happens in this little bit that you're on this planet and start

thinking about eternity i think is it russell crowe in gladiator says what we do in this life

echoes in eternity it's not quite right but what we do in this life does affect what happens in

eternity and that's what Jesus is starting to tell his hearers you know this crowd that have

followed him looking perhaps for another miracle and they're starting to get some harder sayings

that Jesus is bringing to them so then they asked him what must we do to do the works that God

requires Jesus answered this he says the work of God is this to believe in the one he has sent

You see, it's a classic question that they ask

because they don't really understand what he's saying.

It's a bit like, you know, I'm still like that when I'm following Jesus.

I guess a lot of us are.

We ask questions that really reveal we don't quite get it.

And you know what?

That's absolutely fine.

Because with God, there is no such thing as a daft question.

He loves us to ask the questions

and then he takes us from where we are in our understanding

and helps us to see what he is about.

And that's exactly what's going on here.

And so Jesus says the work of God is this,

is to believe in the one God has sent.

Who is that?

Okay, good, we're in the right place.

It's Jesus, yes, absolutely.

But also, my question is, what does believe mean, right?

Believe in the one he has sent,

because the devil believes in Jesus, right?

And shudders, the Bible tells us.

So when Jesus says the work of God is this,

to believe in the one he has sent,

what do you think believe means?

Not quite so sure.

Trust in him, yeah?

What, trust his teachings?

Do you want to know how to do them well?

And do those things, yeah, that's right.

Anything else?

Have faith, where faith is in action.

Yeah, that's right.

That's good.

So we need to think beyond the immediate word, don't we,

about what believe is really about

because there are a lot of voices out there

clamouring for our attention,

but there is only one voice.

That has been sent by God.

And so we need to figure out how we believe.

And actually, particularly in Western society today,

we're so full of cynicism that it breathes a sense of cautiousness about anything

and we hold anything back.

And that's why we need to translate belief into action as we've just heard.

Moving on, verse 30 then.

So they asked him, what sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?

what will you do our ancestors at the manor in the wilderness as it's written they he gave them

bread from heaven to eat i love it when people quote scripture to jesus it's great no jesus said

to them very truly i tell you it is not moses who's given you the bread from heaven but it is

my father who gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of god is the bread that comes down

from heaven and gives life to the world sir they said always give us this bread and Jesus declared

I am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will

never be thirsty so what's he talking about so again we've got questions from his hearers that

reveal their lack of understanding still and their misunderstanding and again Jesus takes them

from a place where they are and tries to bring them forward so that they get an understanding

of what Jesus is about and of what God in heaven is about and he takes them from this thing they

know about of God providing manna in the desert so as Jews in the first century they were totally

aware of their history and how God had led them out of Egypt through the wilderness and

miraculously provided this manna every morning they could collect which appeared on the ground

and it would provide them enough food for the day

and then they would start again the next day.

And they were fully aware of that.

And so Jesus, knowing that, uses that as a starting place to explain to them

but the provision of God with that manna was temporary.

It only lasted for a brief period.

And so, but actually to Jesus being the true provision of God

that is not temporary but he is life-giving.

and so you know to us that that wouldn't be our starting place right we wouldn't start with that

story about the altar we would start somewhere else but Jesus takes us to a place where he wants

us to understand that he is the one who is life giving and he says I am the bread of life so he

uses something from everyday life that is fundamental that people would understand that

actually we rely on day by day he takes us some element of food that is normal in that time and

is still normal today but actually it was even more fundamental then people got hungry they

needed to eat they would have some bread but hey guess what you get hungry again it only momentarily

satisfies and here's the deal that Jesus is homing in on he says we chase after things that momentarily

satisfy all the time and yet we still end up hungering and thirsting for more but if if we

come to Jesus if we believe in Jesus bearing in mind what we just said that means then there are

longings in our lives that will be satisfied permanently he says if you spend your life

chasing after the next thing and the next thing and the next thing you will never be satisfied

He'll just get worn out.

Why?

Because God has set eternity in the hearts of men.

What Jesus is teaching them is that all of us are made in the image of God.

Whether we are a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic, a humanist, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh,

we are all made in the image of God.

And what that means is we've all got something made within us to worship God.

But actually, if we're not doing that, we look to fill it with something else.

all the time and that something else never works because it's made to be there to worship God and

what Jesus is doing here is teaching people that actually we need to come back to worshipping God,

all of us, otherwise there is this gap in our lives that only he can fulfil that deep longing.

Yes, of course we still get physically hungry, we still need to address those physical needs

But actually, in terms of the priorities in our life and what we are about, the need to do that has been replaced by something bigger, something far more significant.

And this is about our priorities.

And he's teaching them that unless we turn to Jesus, if we do turn to Jesus and we find him as the bread of life, he will fulfill our needs.

The pain, the disappointments, the letdowns, the loss of hope, the failed dreams no longer have to

define us, but they can all be brought to Jesus. And as we feed on him, he puts them in their proper

perspective. Moving on, verse 36. But as I told you, you've seen me and still you do not believe.

all those the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away

for I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me

and this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all those he has given me

but raise them up at the last day for my father's will is that everyone who looks to the son and

believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. All that the

Father gives to me will come to me. It's the work of God to bring us to Jesus. Hallelujah. That is

such good news. It is the work of the Father to bring you and I to Jesus. There is no, what I

mean is there is no room when we come to Jesus, there is no room for doubt. There's no room to

think am i a christian does jesus really want me would he accept me there's no room for that

because if we have come to jesus it is the work of god the father that has brought you to jesus

in the first place and as we sit here this morning worshiping him it is the work of god the father

that has brought you into relationship with him it is the work of god the father that is at work in

you causing worship and causing love for jesus and causing a desire to change your life for jesus

it's the work of the father to do that and then in the very same sentence Jesus says

and whoever comes to me I will never drive away so I just love that Jesus in in one sentence says

two things that our tiny human minds struggle to hold together it's God that's brought you to Jesus

you've chosen to come to Jesus and scripture doesn't give us permission to say one of those

is more important than the other it just puts them both there and we have to handle that God

has brought you to Jesus but you've chosen to come to Jesus and he says whoever comes to me

I will never drive away but when you do so so and again I just want to get hold of that

Jesus says to you when we come to him he will never drive you away that's such good news amen

thank you very much you know it's our choice to come to Jesus but we cannot say when we come to

will he want me am i worthy no he will never drive you away and we live don't we in such a world of

broken promises of broken trust of being let down by people of being disappointed by people and so

we lower our expectation in relationships we put on masks to protect ourselves we hide behind things

to protect ourselves and yet here is Jesus in openness saying if we come to him he will never

drive us away what a place of security what a place of acceptance and love and Jesus does this

because he is fully submitted to his father's will in verse 38 there that means Jesus has come to do

his father's will it means it's the will of the father to come for people to come to Jesus it

means when we do mission when we are a church when we are talking to people about Jesus we are not

doing that because it just seems like a good idea or it's what Christians do but this is born in the

heart of the father it's the father's heart for people to come to Jesus it's the father's heart

for men and women to respond to the message of his son it's the father's heart that drives us to do

the things that we do, because it's born in the

Father's heart. It's not just our idea.

We don't just do partly on the precinct because that

seems like a good idea. But it

is the Father's heart

for men and women to come to

Jesus. And what we're trying

to do is join in

with what the Father is doing.

And that's what he's challenging

us to do.

Jesus isn't herding

cats. Sometimes

in pastoral situations, it's a little bit like

we need to get that in, but we need

we need to do this and it can feel a little bit like this but i don't get that message from jesus

it's the father's heart to draw people to him and jesus is about doing the will of his father and

what that means is we can pray therefore with confidence for those that have wandered away

from the faith we can pray with confidence for a younger generation that needs to pick up the

baton and go for it in god we need to we can pray with confidence for those across jordanthorpe

and bake more on low edges to see God move

because it is the Father's heart to draw people to Jesus.

And we can pray with confidence for our families

and for those that do not know Jesus

because it is the Father's heart.

And Jesus starts to reinforce the message

by saying everyone who looks to the Son will come to him.

Everyone who looks to the Son is accepted,

has eternal life and will be raised to life.

So this is like that rewind bit, only he just repeats, repeats.

You know how good teachers often, they tell you what you're going to say,

they say it, and then they told you what they're going to say,

and then they've done it three times.

And Jesus is doing that through this passage to try and get the reality of this message over to his hearers

because it is life-changing.

Verse 41, at this the Jews there began to grumble about him

because he said, I'm the bread that comes down from heaven.

They said, isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

how can you now say I came down from heaven stop grumbling amongst yourselves Jesus answered

no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them and I will raise them up at the last

day it's written in the prophets they will also be taught by God everyone who's heard the father

and learn from him comes to me no one has seen the father except the one who is from God only he

has seen the father time to get in the way but I just quickly want to say on this bit you know

This is the grumbling phase.

Have you been through the grumbling phase with Jesus?

I need a bit more honesty.

Have we been through the grumbling phase with Jesus?

Yeah, we're still there.

We're still there, okay.

We all do it, don't we?

You begin to realize something about Jesus

and he begins to challenge maybe something

about the way you live your life,

the way you think about stuff,

the cost associated with following him.

And we just start to grumble.

And we say, I thought Jesus was just this.

you know in the story they thought Jesus was just the son of Joseph but we all have our own I thought

Jesus was just this I thought he was just irrelevant I thought he was just a myth I thought

he was just a man I thought he was just a good teacher and then as he works and reveals himself

to us like he's doing here we begin to think oh my word if I want to follow this then it's going

to mean this this this and there's a grumbling phase that takes place but Jesus reinforces us

yet again it is the father who draws us to him we might think we see other things we chat to people

but it is God at work in our life drawing us to Jesus I'm going to skip the next one in the

interest of time and go to this last bit because it's a bit of a challenging read but then the

Jews began to argue sharply amongst themselves how can this man give us his flesh to eat okay

bear with us on this Jesus said to him very truly I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the son of

man and drink his blood you have no life in you whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has

eternal life and i will raise them up at the last day for my flesh is real food and my blood is real

drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and i in them just as the living

father sent me and i live because of the father so the one who feeds on me will live because of me

this is the bread that came down from heaven your ancestors at manor and died spot the repetition

again, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. He said this while teaching in the

synagogue in Capernaum. Now, we've got to say up front, be really clear, this is not about

cannibalism, right? So, well, you know, some people would read that and think, what is going on?

And we have to remember, this was written 2,000 years ago in a cultural context where this made

a lot more sense than it does to a 21st century person today, all right? But to get a clue of

what Jesus is talking about here we just need to go back to verse 51 verse 51 there Jesus I am the

living bread that came down from heaven whoever eats this bread will live forever this bread is

my flesh which I will give for the life of the world you see Jesus is saying he's going to lay

down his life for the world he's going to lay down his blood and his body his flesh if you like

for the world. He's talking about for the first time here in John that he's going to the cross

to be crucified and hang on a cross and he lays down his life for us at the cross, his flesh

and blood poured out for us. So when he talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood,

he's really talking about you and I identifying with him in his death. He's really talking about

you and I coming to the cross and agreeing that he died for me and agreeing that the state of my

life meant he had to die for me. It means coming to the cross and agreeing that actually that should

have been me but Jesus has given his life for me. It means the cross is the gateway to everything

he's talked about in the previous verses if we want that eternal life if we want that acceptance

if we want that security in Jesus the only way to it is to come through the cross and the drawing

of God to bring us to Jesus can only be via the cross where Jesus laid down his life there is no

other way no other option his death on the cross for my sin but if we do that then what he's saying

earlier becomes a reality for us we have eternal life we have acceptance with the son and we

experience his love you see this means looking at the cross with the dead body of jesus on it

knowing that he took my place that actually this means admitting that should have been me

and however nice we want to think we are the reality is before our holy god my sin my selfishness

My arrogance is an offence to God that deserves death.

And it should be me.

And what Jesus is saying in these verses

is we are recognising that and agreeing with that

and saying, thank you, God, you came and died on a cross for me.

I don't have to die because Jesus died in my place.

And so there is this great exchange

and it means full surrender, full submission

and laying down my rights and my attitudes,

humbling myself under the enormous loving plan

of a God who pursued me,

who sent his son to take my punishment

and to give me life.

Amen.