Break with a sermon pt. 4

John 6:35

“I am the bread of life.”

Introduction (This stuff only makes sense in the context of the church)

Mention Stacy

Mention self

Borrowed many ideas from Tim Keller

Holiday meals

1. Everyone is hungry…therefore everyone eats

Now what do I mean by this? Well this is an odd way of saying something that we all know, everyone is living for something. Everyone has something that makes their life worth living. It helps them get out of bed in the morning. It helps them rest at ease at night.

Our hearts are made to be attached to something. The heart is not a vacuum; it must rest its affections somewhere. They just don’t exist by themselves.

Or as I put it, everyone is hungry and therefore everyone eats.

The best example I can think of for this idea is of man desperate girl. We all know these girls; they need a man in their life. Usually what happens is that they attach themselves to one loser to another. Their current boyfriend is in jail; their next one will be a drug dealer. Inevitably what usually ends up happening to these girls is attach themselves to one man who uses, abuses, and mistreats in so many ways. Then they move to another guy who does the exact same thing. It is very easy for us on the outside to say, why don’t you just dump the guy? He is a loser, you are paying all his bills, get out of there. But what they are doing is reflecting something true of all of us. The heart must always be attached to something. That is why they replace their current loser with another loser. It must always be attached to something.

Here is another example. I really like the show biggest loser. The genius of what the trainers do in that show is this: in order to change these people’s lives, they don’t just tell them to stop eating fattening food. They realize that their hearts are attached to the food. Instead they point their heart to healthy living. It is not just enough to say stop doing this bad thing. Instead the bad must be replaced with something good.

This leads me to my next point. Everyone is eating but…

2. Most people are eating the wrong food.

It is very easy for us to spot the people who are living blatantly for bad things. Even the message of the world this time of year is that living for money is ultimately unsatisfying. I was watching the Madagascar Christmas special the other day. At the end, one of the little guys learned that it is better to give than to receive. Even the world knows that living for yourself and monetary gain is ultimately an unsatisfying pursuit.

Or in the case of a man who is always cheating on his wife. He is trying to fill that hunger that emptiness with romance, love, or just sex.

But the Bible takes it a step further. This is what this passage speaks towards. In this passage, the people were searching after political power (6:15). Political power is not a bad thing. Kings are not necessarily bad things. But they were trying to find all their value in life in it. This is bad thing. The Biblical principle behind this is that if you live for anything but God, you are living for the wrong thing.

The danger for most people is not living for bad things. I don’t know if most of us will have the temptation to live for drugs. But the temptation for us is to live for good things that aren’t God.

Or in the case of the suburban man, he tries to fill that hunger with his family or his job. Not bad things, but unsatisfying if made central.

What does this look like? If everything is going ok at work, they have value in life. As long as their family is happy, life has value. As long as they are giving to the poor, then everything is ok, and life has value.

First, it is ultimately unfulfilling, unsatisfying for your hunger to feed yourself with anything other than God. It destroys the soul. “The best temporal blessings do not save us from death – wealth, friends, family, food, a good job. These things cannot even save themselves from death.”

This world can never satisfy the longings of the human soul. Ill. In Greek mythology, King Tantalus was punished in the underworld by being chained in a lake. Its waters reached to his chin but receded whenever he bent down to satisfy his burning thirst. Over his head were branches laden with choice fruit, but they immediately withdrew whenever he reached upward to satisfy his hunger. A symbol of utter frustration, his name is immortalized in the English word "tantalize." So, too, seeking to know God, or to satisfy the human soul apart from Christ is utterly futile.

Second the Bible takes it a step further. Not only are these things unsatisfying practically, but this is idolatry and offensive to God.

Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry.
Tim Keller

How can this look practically? People fill their lives with all sorts of good things, but make them ultimate things. They turn things like their family or their career or even good works into an ultimate thing. That is sin.

John 6:26-27, 49. When the people asked for temporal gifts, this is Jesus’ response. You are filling yourself with the wrong things.

How do you know what you are living for? Are you living for God, or have you tried to satisfy your hunger with something less.

The way to test this is by asking yourself, what is my worst nightmare? What if you lost it, you would lose all joy and value in life?

For instance, if something is good and you lose it, you will be sad, it will definitely affect you. We have had many people lose their jobs over the past year or so. If it is just a good thing, it will make you sad. But if it is you hunger’s satisfaction, you will be devastated. It will be hard for you to get out of bed, because how will you know that you are alright except if you excel at your job?

Most people are eating the wrong food. This food first unsatisfying, and second offensive to God.

And this leads us to the final point, here is where the good news lies.

3. Jesus is the bread of life

In light of what we have been talking about and what we have been feeling as human beings since the beginning, Jesus comes along and makes huge claims, not just here, but remember he also said similar things to the Samaritan woman.

What does he offer?

Read John 6:32-40

1) He offers life to all (6:33)

2) He offers to satisfy and sustain life (6:35)

3) He offers to receive all (6:37)

4) He offers authority and truth (6:38)

5) He offers security (6:39)

6) He offers eternal life (6:40)

Is this not great news? Is this not good news to hear? After hearing how everything else will fail or leave you, Jesus stands up and says I am the bread of life. All other bread is stale compared to me.

What are the objections?

But there are a few objections in the crowd, just as there are more than a few objections today.

I remember the other day at Starbucks; I was reading my Bible during my break. One of our regulars came up to me and asked me what I was reading. I showed him and I even got him to read a few verses. I told him how exciting and interesting it was. His response was that the Bible was fine, but he had other things to read. In part, what I think he was saying was, this is not as important as you want me to believe it is.

Jesus’ audience responds the same way. John 6:41-2

Jesus responds with the same thing he said earlier. All this other bread, it cannot satisfy or sustain you. I am the bread of life.

All other objections we can think of today, Christianity is a failed system, but you don’t know how the church has hurt me, there is not really a God, I don’t have time: Jesus’ response is enough, I am the bread of life. Here I am, believe in me, have faith in me. That is his offer.

Conclude

Everyone out there is filling themselves with something. They are living for something and trying to find satisfaction with some bread. Some choose family, others career, and still others money. All of these will not satisfy.

I want to conclude today by reading a hymn I found and then a Bible verse that stands as an offer to all of us.

Bread of life

Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,

For thy Flesh is meat indeed;

Ever may our souls be fed,

With this true and living Bread;

Day by Day with strength supplied,

Through the life of him who died.

Vine of heaven, thy Blood supplies

This blest cup of sacrifice;

Lord thy wounds our healing give,

To thy cross we look and live:

Jesus, may we ever be

Grafted, rooted, built in thee.

Isaiah 55:1-2