For our Scripture reading this morning, turn with me to John 6. John 6. We read together the verses 22 through 42, considering as our text verse 35. Earlier in this chapter, we read about the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, and as well Jesus walking on the water to His disciples. Now we begin at verse 22 as we give our attention to the reading of the Word of God. The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with His disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. You are looking for Me not because you saw miraculous signs, 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. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval. Then they asked Him, What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, The work of God is this, to believe in the One He has sent. So they asked Him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has 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 He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, from now on give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen Me, and still you do not believe. All that 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 should lose none of all that 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. At this, the Jews began to grumble about Him, because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? Our text, verse 35, once again, Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you recall, I trust, last week we were called to self-examination in preparation to come to the Lord's table this week, which you can see has been made ready by the grace of God. So now I must ask you, how did your examination go this past week? Was it a profitable examination? Or was it the kind of week where now this morning you walked into church, you see the table prepared, and you said to yourself, Oops, I forgot. Well, let me remind us, let me take a moment to remind us all of the three parts included in the self-examination to which we were called last week. The true examination of ourselves consists of these three parts. First, let everyone consider by himself his sins and accursedness, that he may abhor himself and humble himself before God, considering that the wrath of God against sin is so great that he, rather than to leave it unpunished, has punished it in his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with the bitter and shameful death of the cross. Second, let everyone examine his heart whether he also believes this sure promise of God that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ and that the complete righteousness of Christ is imputed and freely given him as his own, yea, so completely, as if he himself in his own person had satisfied for all his sins and fulfilled all righteousness. Third, let everyone examine his conscience whether he is minded henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life and to walk sincerely before his face, likewise whether he, without any hypocrisy, heartily laying aside all enmity, hatred and envy, earnestly resolves henceforward to live in true love and unity with his neighbor. If, by the grace of God, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, you have prepared properly to come to the Lord's table this morning, you ought to have come here this morning with a spirit of humility because of your sin and misery. With a spirit of assurance knowing that your sins are indeed forgiven you if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And a spirit of thanksgiving to God for that deliverance. So now I need to ask again, does that describe you this morning? Are you filled with that spirit of those three things? Because, beloved, you see, without that spirit of humility and assurance and thankfulness to the Lord, then partaking of this little morsel of bread and this tiny sip of wine will do you no good. Physically speaking, that's barely enough for a church mouse. But it's only with this spirit of humility and assurance and thankfulness given by the grace of God that you can be satisfied with Christ's body and blood as you partake of these symbols before you. The bread and wine. Now boys and girls, I'm pretty sure that you probably all ate something for breakfast this morning. And now it's getting a little bit later in the morning and no doubt like my stomach, your stomach is starting to tell you that it's time for a snack. Maybe it's growling a little bit telling you that you need to give it that mid-morning snack that you might give it if you were at home. And I'm sure that soon after this morning's service you will go home and sit down to that Sunday dinner or as I was corrected after the first service, it's lunch. But that Sunday dinner as I'm going to call it. And as you come to the family table, you'll say to your mom, Mom, what's for dinner? I'm starving. But, you know, you just had breakfast a few hours before. How can you be hungry? Well, the point is, physical food is temporary, isn't it? Physical food doesn't satisfy indefinitely, but only for a short time. It's only a matter of time. And we're hungry again. And most of us take time out in the day, whether we need to or not, three times to satisfy our hunger. The truth is physical food doesn't satisfy forever. It's only temporary. We cannot eat a big Sunday dinner today and expect that to last us all the way throughout the week until next Sunday. Physical food is temporary. The message of Jesus in John chapter 6 and especially verse 35 is that there is a source of food that will never lose its satisfying power. Therefore, this morning I preached to you this Word of God, the source of never-ending satisfaction, as we consider His claim, the claim of our Lord, and secondly, as we consider His call. Now, the context of the words of our Lord in this text is a time in His ministry as we somewhat considered last Sunday morning when He was performing a number of miracles and the crowds continued to gather around Him and continued to get larger and larger as they began to suspect that He just very well might be the long-awaited Messiah. And we know that John 6 is the chapter of the Bible where Jesus tells the people directly that He is the One. I am the Messiah. And he does so in this chapter by using the analogy of bread. But the result of doing this was that many people who had been following him began to doubt him. Because his claim didn't make sense to them. As I mentioned a few moments ago, it's interesting that the awesome miracle that comes just before this text, which teaches us of the bread of life, was the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. We know that story well. He feeds the multitude with that small portion of food and there is such an abundance of food left over that they gather 12 baskets of leftovers. And I'm pretty confident that there's not a mother here today who has ever had that kind of success gathering more food after the meal than what she prepared beforehand. But the people recognize through that that something miraculous happened by the hands of Jesus and therefore, as verse 15 says, which we did not read, Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself. The people wanted to make Him the kind of kingly Messiah, earthly Messiah that they conceived in their minds that He ought to be. They knew best what they needed. And therefore, the day after this miraculous feeding, Jesus exposes their ignorance. He says to them in verse 26, I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. And since food was on their minds, Jesus uses the analogy of food and tells them not to be concerned about that temporary food which perishes or spoils, but that they are to seek God's eternal food. See, beloved, Jesus had fed them the night before until they were physically satisfied. They were full. Their stomachs could hold no more. But as it turned out to them, that was just another meal. Just like the night before and the night before that and so forth. They missed the point of the miracle. Their idea of the Messiah was that life with Him would be a miraculous life in the physical sense. That fruit trees, in essence, would always bear fruit. That there would always be grain standing in the field and standing tall at that to be reaped without labor. With the Messiah, there would always be luxury and safety. And of course, we know that one day after this life, life with Christ will be beautiful with no sorrow, no tears, no worries or whatever. A life where prosperity abounds in greater abundance than you and I could ever imagine. But these people were thinking in terms of this life, life on this earth, even the life that we live today. The people could not get past the idea of physical luxury being provided by the Savior, by the Messiah. And what's more, they thought that they could work for it. In verse 28, then they asked Him, what must we do to do the works God requires? What must we do? And Jesus makes it clear that they are called to believe. And if they believe, It's not their work, but it's the work of God in them. Congregation, God doesn't require of us, first of all, the work of our hands or the work of our bodies, but He requires the work of our hearts. Our God calls His people to believe in the One whom He has sent, Jesus Christ. But yet the people were starting to get a little edgy. Remember, the very night before, they wanted to crown Him King. But now, really, a matter of a few short hours later, they want His credentials. Verses 30 and 31. So they asked Him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. You see, indeed, Jesus fed 5,000 men, plus women and children, I believe. Yet He started with something. A small amount to be sure, but He started with five loaves and two fish. But Moses, they said, fed all of God's people in the wilderness for many, many years, and that bread rained down from heaven. So Jesus, if you are greater than Moses, then you must have something even more spectacular up your sleeve that you can show us. But of course, Jesus sets them straight, telling them that it wasn't Moses who provided, but it was God. Yet, even at that, that food, that manna, was not enough. All who ate the manna, including Moses himself, eventually died that physical death. What they needed was the true bread of God, which gives life to the world. But these people, as I believe the passage makes clear, were still a little bit slow. Still thinking about physical bread. Yet their response, okay, give us this bread always. And finally, Jesus makes His claim as if to say, you people still don't get it, do you? You just don't understand. I am the bread of life. The people wanted a sign. But the sign was standing right before their very eyes. Yes, Jesus had a miraculous work up His sleeve, His work on the cross. but they were too nearsighted to understand. They were blinded by their bellies. They just didn't get it. But we need to understand, beloved, that all of this bread talk was so important, significant, especially in that day, but also today. What an awesome analogy our Lord uses and what a contrast He gives between physical bread and spiritual bread. You see, bread was an important part of their daily diet. Today, bread for us is an extra, isn't it? Our main course is something else, meat and potatoes, maybe pasta or something of that nature. If you go out to eat, what do they give you before your meal comes? They give you some bread to tide you over. But bread was their main course. And from very early in Israel's history, bread was baked daily and that wasn't easy either. Today, we take the ingredients, we throw it in a bread maker, we turn the switch on, we come back a couple hours later, maybe the next morning, with that nice, fresh smell, and voila, we have a loaf of bread. Or we go to the grocery store and it's already been baked and packaged, and guess what? It's even sliced for us. How wonderful. But they ground the grain into meal. They mixed the meal with water. They kneaded it. They pounded it and baked it in whatever primitive way they used. But also, all kinds of people ate bread. It wasn't just the upper class or the lower class or the middle class. It was bread on the king's table. But also, the beggar looked and searched for scraps of bread. And we know that the word bread is used in Scripture to talk about more than just the physical bread we think of, but to talk about food and nourishment in general. The point being that bread and nourishment are necessary for physical life. And therefore, Jesus compares Himself to bread. And just as physical bread is necessary for our physical existence, the bread Jesus Christ is necessary for our spiritual existence, for life everlasting. The people knew that they needed to eat, and they saw Jesus as one who could feed them every day if He wanted to, feed them literally. But again, they were only thinking about their bodies and little did they know just how truly satisfying Jesus could be. And our Lord makes it clear that He is the only one. There is none other besides Him. In the Greek, the word the, in the phrase, I am the bread of life, in the Greek that word is emphasized. It's stressed so that a literal reading is that Jesus is saying that He is the one and only bread of life. There is no other source of satisfaction like Jesus Christ. And therefore, He also issues a call to go along with His claim. Again, physical bread satisfies. That is, it gives relief from hunger for a time. But the bread of life, Jesus Christ, is the source of never-ending satisfaction. He says, He who comes to Me will never go hungry. And he who believes in Me shall never be thirsty. Now, how certain is this? How can we be assured of this? Again, the original Greek says it beautifully. A literal reading is that he who comes to Me shall not ever hunger. And he who believes in Me shall never ever be thirsty. But there's also a continual aspect here. An idea of continuance. The tense of comes and believes gives the idea of one who comes and keeps on coming, that one will never be hungry. One who believes and keeps on believing continuously will never be thirsty. You see, beloved, these activities are not one-time events, but these activities are lifestyles. Continuous lifestyles of believing and coming. And of course, Scripture teaches us that this is not our doing. But it's the work of God's grace. Even as Paul says in Philippians 1, verse 6, He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Beloved, to believe on Christ is to receive God's testimony concerning His own Son. And to rest on Him alone for salvation. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe that He was sent to give His own life. And to believe that it depends upon our connection with and our partaking of that bread of life by grace through faith, it depends upon that for whether we shall or shall not have eternal life. And then there is coming to Him, which is really the effect of believing on Him. Those who believe of necessity come to Him. Now the people that He was talking to had followed Him for many miles, but as the rest of John chapter 6 makes clear, they did not come to Him in true faith and belief. To come to Jesus is for the heart to go out to Him in loving confidence. It is to approach Him in spirit with submissive trust. To rest in Him for our all, receiving Him as our Savior and all of His benefits. To come to Jesus is in a sense a directional thing in which our orientation is toward Him. He alone is before our face as opposed to being oriented to Satan and following Him. Hebrews 11 verse 6 says, Without faith it is impossible to please Him. And then listen to the next phrase, For he that cometh to God must believe that He is. In other words, as one commentator says, I must know who the physician is and believe in his ability before I shall go to him to be cured. You see, God in His grace reveals Himself and His saving purpose to His people, bringing them to a saving faith in Himself. And then as Christ says in verse 44 of John chapter 6, the Father draws His people to the Savior. But not only is this satisfaction never ending, it is also complete. There's a difference. It's never ending, but it's complete. Now, we don't usually eat bread to quench our thirst, do we? A large glass of water takes care of that. For the boys and girls, if you go to your mom and say, I'm thirsty, Mom, can I have a slice of bread? That doesn't make sense. If you're thirsty, you ask for a glass of water or a glass of something else to drink. But notice, according to the text, the bread of life not only satisfies my hunger, but He also quenches my thirst. The people of God, the audience of Jesus at that time, wanted what Jesus had to offer physically. They wanted that. But they didn't want it spiritually. Many of them rejected Him. And instead, they demanded some great sign, and when He wouldn't deliver at their demand, they rejected Him further. They grumbled. Because He said that He was the bread that came down out of heaven. In verse 42, they said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? Now, there are many, many, many people today who claim that they would believe in Him if only they could see and touch Him. Or if only He would do some sort of miraculous work in their lives. Or they say, if I had seen Him feed the multitude with the five loaves and two fish. or if I had seen Him heal all those people, or if I had seen Him raise someone from the dead, then I would believe. No doubt. You remember Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, I trust, recorded in Luke chapter 16. The rich man goes to hell. Lazarus goes to heaven to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man, of course, begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers. Because surely they will repent if one from the dead comes to them. And what does Abraham say? If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, in other words, if they do not believe the very Word of God, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead. Some say, seeing is believing. I can only believe that which I see. But is that necessarily true? Is it? When it comes to the bread of life, seeing is not believing that is first of all with the naked eye, but believing is seeing with the eyes of faith. The Lord's table is before us once again this morning, before your very eyes. By the grace of God, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have already seen His work by faith. And at His table, we see an emblem of His greatest work ever accomplished, His work on the cross. And we see a sign of the greatest miracle ever done, His resurrection. And His table is also a symbol of the great heavenly banquet of never-ending satisfaction. And we know that the cross of our Lord has always been offensive to so many because surely no Savior would be humiliated in that way and put to death in such an accursed way. Besides, we all know that the victor doesn't die. The one who wins doesn't die, but the loser dies. The winner is left standing. What kind of Savior is that? One who dies on the cross. But beloved, without the cross of Christ, there would be no food on His table. The cross is where Jesus Christ became. the bread of life. Just as the wheat must be ground and the dough must be kneaded and pounded into shape and the bread must be baked in the fire, in the same way Christ was ground and pounded and subjected to the fierce fires of God's holy wrath as He took our place in judgment. The bread of God was bruised and pierced for our iniquities. Beloved, the table of the Lord is before us this morning as we see the physical bread and physical wine right there. Yet the true food is always on the table. Not just on the Sunday morning or evening when we have a scheduled time of communion around the Lord's table. But it's always on the Lord's table. The bread of life is placed before you each and every time we gather together and each and every time you open the Word of God, your Bible. Do you eat? Or are you on a special diet? Picking and choosing those morsels that flatter your taste buds. You see, a sermon may not be as powerful or always say what you want. It might even say something that bothers you and cuts you to the quick. And you might not particularly care for the one preaching. But the food is still on the table. The congregational prayer may not always be to your specific taste, but as God's people bow their heads together and gather around His throne of grace, the food is still on the table. The fellowship of God's people may sometimes be lacking salt, and possibly even because of you. But the food is still on the table. The singing and the music may be too loud or too soft or too fast or too slow, But where true believers are gathered in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, the food is still on the table. Jesus Christ is the source of never-ending satisfaction. And just as the bread and the wine must be eaten and must be drunk to do any physical good, the body and blood of Christ must be partaken of by faith in order for one to be satisfied in his salvation. Beloved, the bread of life is on the banquet table. If you reject Him, then you will starve eternally. And you are to blame no one else. But if by the grace of God you repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and hear those most precious words from His lips, your sins are forgiven you, then you will receive never-ending satisfaction guaranteed. This little piece of bread and small taste of wine will not even begin to satisfy our physical appetites, but that which it stands for will satisfy for eternity as the Holy Spirit of God lifts our hearts on high where Christ Jesus is and as He nourishes our faith. Beloved, take, eat, and drink. Remember and believe that the body of our Lord was broken and His blood was shed into a complete remission of all our sins. Do you believe? then come.