John 6:24-40
Throughout John’s gospel John identifies Jesus by the statements, “I AM.” This appealed to the Jews because this is how God identified Himself to them through Moses in Exodus 3:14-15.
For us to really know Jesus, we have to listen and consider what he says about Himself. John shares these thoughts using the statement, “I AM.”
Let us take a few moments and consider a few verses that helps us to understand the Godhead – Father, Son, and Spirit, as they have worked out our salvation. My hopes and prayers are that, as Christians, we consider and meditate on the love the Father has for us, and the resulting love we have for them. Truly, without His love, we are lost. We have no hope.
These things speak to us as Christians when we consider the world and how there is strife, turmoil, pain, heartache, death… you get the picture. Multiplied billions suffer from spiritual malnutrition – their souls are hungry, and they strive to fill the “empty spot” in their hearts. They seek happiness here on earth and are often disappointed. Chronic loneliness, despair, desperation, and hopelessness reign in their hearts. They suffer from spiritual malnutrition and lack of direction. God’s church has been commissioned to share the gospel with the world – HE IS OUR ONLY HOPE. What are we doing to help others to know the God who can answer all of these needs?
God values us and wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-6). Man’s response should be love for Him, yet do we live our lives proving that we love Him in return?
How do we draw closer with God? “By partaking of Jesus, the Bread of life.” Only he can satisfy our spiritual hunger.
Physically, God created us so that when we are hungry our stomachs and brains work together to take care of our hunger. We consider what to eat – we get up off the couch and go into the kitchen and look in the refrigerator. Our brain looks through the selections, and we heat up the food, and eat. When it comes to spiritual hunger, only Jesus can satisfy. Only he can fill the deficiency in what our SOULS NEED. Life is a quest to search for something that will fill the hole that exists in our souls.
Jesus met the people in John 6 and fed the masses with five loaves and two fishes. The crowd wanted more, and they followed him to Capernaum. They wanted to make him their king (no doubt, so that if they got into battle, or were being starved out) He would deliver them. So many try to fill the empty spot in their souls with relationships, success, good graces, healthy family and healthy body. But we all know that while these things are important, they cannot fill the yearning that we have for God and His word.
Many claim to follow Jesus, but for the wrong reasons. The multitudes followed Jesus because they were looking for another free meal. Some today follow Jesus in exchange for blessings, health, good fortune, a happy, healthy family, a good job, a big bank account or freedom from suffering (to state a few). But do we follow Jesus when things are bad, when we have sickness or death in the family, when we don’t have enough money to pay the bills, when it seems the world in which we live in is going badly?
As we close this article, remember Jesus is the bread of life. We know the temporary satisfaction from food; there is nothing temporary about the fullness that the bread of life brings. He brings life! Romans 6:23 states, “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As physical bread sustains our physical life, only Jesus can give us spiritual life. He came to save us from our sins, and promises, “. . . if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us. In the Greek it is in present tense, which means to continually cleanseus from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
What we need to do is to “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” (Matthew 5:6). How many Christians are starving to death because they do not strive hard enough to “. . .grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). The bread of Life brings life. We must follow Him, seek to do His will and praise him for his salvation.
Ideas and thoughts from a sermon by Geoffrey Mabe S Knoxville church of Christ
