Pastor Slaughter
August 11, 2024
Pentecost 12
Theme: Why did you come here today?
Text John 6:24-35
Why did you come here today? Was it to hear a message? To see some people, you know? Because that is what you are supposed to do? Or maybe if you come here today maybe God will bless you with something that you want? Why are you here at church today?
There was a crowd that gathered, and they wanted to see Jesus. Jesus had just fed 5000 men, not including women and children. Jesus had secretly gone on the other side of the lake with his disciples. The next day the crowd was looking for him and they got in their boats and went to the other side of the lake and found him.
Why did they come to see Jesus? Jesus answered that in verse 26, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: you are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” Jesus pretty confrontational with them when he spoke these words. The word “filled” was often used to describe overeating with animals. It was like Jesus was saying, “You pigged out on the food I gave you and now you want more.”
Jesus is saying this is a very big deal. Amen Amen. I tell you…You are looking for me and here’s why: not to see a sign… but because you are going to me for the most base animalistic reasons, to fill your guts. You want to be satiated!
Why are you here today? It’s not just the people in Jesus time but we see it in America. The amplification of the self. We’re about the comfortable life. About our own lives, about our own happiness. We want to be comfortable. We want to be ok. When we focus on that it really is dehumanizing us. Where we are so focused on the here and now, taking care of our physical needs. We act, believe, think that all we are is flesh and blood.
Example: have you have sat and watched the sunrise at the beach and thought “Man this is the life.”? Or have you sat outside on a cool breezy day and were just relaxing and said, “This is the good life.”? That is same idea. If we simply view our live as the here and now, the physical side, the part of us that appeals to the flesh and blood, we really are dehumanizing ourselves, but Scripture teaches that we are so much more than that. We have a soul!
Jesus knew that and wanted to minister to more than our base carnal desires. To give us more than just some bread and fish. He wants to give us more than just a full belly. It would seem like Jesus; many times, finds our desires not too strong but too weak. I believe it was CS Lewis who said in a sermon on this, “We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy has been offered to us.”
When we forgot that we are more than flesh and blood, when we forget that we have a soul, it leads us to spend our time pursuing the desires of the flesh. What is the desire of your flesh, the growling of your stomach? Maybe it’s pursuing things or activities for your children that we forget that our children are more than flesh and blood, they have a soul, a soul that needs to be fed? Do we become so wrapped up in our jobs and providing for our family so they can have comforts that we don’t prioritize feeding our souls? Is life almost too good that you don’t think you need Jesus?
This is something we all struggle with. This craving, this hunger to fill our stomachs. Just look at our prayer life. How often to do we spend our time asking Jesus for things in our prayers? Don’t get me wrong. He tells us to do that but is there a balance of asking and praising and thanking him that maybe a reflection of what’s in the heart?
My brothers and sisters, we can do better. It’s like we set our sights so low. We are satisfied with merely something that doesn’t last. But Jesus is saying I have something much much better for you. I will give you food that endures to eternal life! Jesus said, “Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Jesus is steering the conversation, guiding people who are focused on something that perishes and fades, to something that lasts for all eternity. He shifts the focus from their bellies to him. And what is it that Jesus gives? Saving faith! What a blessing! That God has worked in your lives and has giving you the most precious gift, FAITH! Faith that you believe in the one God has sent. Jesus said, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.” And who gives that to us? It’s Jesus!
The crowd here doesn’t understand who Jesus is and what he can possibly give. It’s like they were saying, “You want us to believe that you can give eternal life? Prove it. Give to us a miraculous sign. Because, Jesus, your feeding of the 5000 for one day was mere child’s play compared to Moses. Moses fed the entire nation of Israel for 40 years in the wildness.” Not a foreign thought, right? How many times during life’s struggles do we say, Jesus if you really are God, prove it. Show me right now?
Jesus corrects them and points them once again to what the Father gives verse 32, 33 “ Amen, amen, I tell you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” There is this cosmic, worldwide feeding that is going on here. This is going far above what happened during Moses’ time. Jesus is telling them that God sent him to them but they still didn’t understand and were thinking of their stomachs. “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”
Jesus then tells them plainly, “I am the Bread of Life, The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirty.” So you have this worldwide cosmic feeding. And Jesus adds it’s never going to end.
This is the First I AM statement in John. With those words Jesus was saying that he was God. The people would have picked up on this because God referred to himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM.”
What Jesus gives to us, lasts. What is the food that Jesus gives to us? What is the work of God? It’s Jesus and what he came to do. He came to give to us faith. He is the one we believe in. And that meal lasts for all of eternity.
The nourishment that Jesus is talking about is clearly spiritual. Jesus is getting us to see what is essential. What matters is not the things we have or what we do. What matters is what God gives, the lasting spiritual food we need. That is the lasting, infinite joy!
We need this. We deteriorate. Our bodies age. We struggle through life. We face pain and rejection. We toil and labor. We are hungry people. We are thirsty people. We need the food that only Jesus can give.
And so I ask that question again, “Why are you here today?” We are people who need to be fed by what Jesus gives. For people who hunger and thirst for materialistic things Jesus gives to us the spiritual food that lasts for all eternity. He has given to us something greater then food for our bellies. He has giving to us saving faith. He has given to us something more than possessions; he has given us his very life. He has given to us something more than physical comfort that fades, he has given us comfort in knowing our sins are forgiven.
When we see how great the bread of life really is, when we recognize who Jesus is and what he gives us, It leads us to start prioritizing him more. Check yourselves to see if you are craving the comforts of this life over what is lasting eternal. “Why are you in church? Why are you looking for Jesus? What are the things that are on our minds? What do we really desire? What do you pray for? Once we recognize that we are more than flesh and blood, that we have a spirit, we can start to prioritize the spiritual food that Jesus gives to us. As parents, we prioritize our spiritual food more than life’s comforts, we prioritize taking our kids to church, reading to them scripture, talking about their faith. These are the morsels of the Bread of life that lasts. When we eat these lasting morsels, it helps us to let go of the worry that comes with prioritizing the flesh and blood and to find this lasting, infinite joy in Jesus. Amen.