we're turning this morning in the bible to john chapter six we're taking a break from our series in genesis john chapter six as you're turning there my daughter walked up to me this morning it's the first time i've ever had this and she said dad how long is the sermon going to be this morning and i said when i feel good and ready to be done so if you're not paying attention it'll go longer. John 6, we're going to consider this morning the first 15 verses of John chapter 6. Let's give our attention this morning to the Word of the Lord. After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberia. And a large crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now, the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little one of his disciples Andrew Simon Peter's brother said to him there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish but what are they for so many Jesus said have the people sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down about five thousand in number then Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that they had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Thus, since the reading of God's word, I ask you to keep it open. We'll be referring quite a few times back to the whole of John 6. Well, in Isaiah 55, we have a powerful statement, a powerful gospel call if you will that says come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy. Listen diligently to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me here that your soul may live. What a powerful, powerful call. What is this bread that the Bible has always offered us that we can buy without price? What a remarkable statement. Can you imagine if somebody said, if you just eat this, you'll live forever? How many people run around looking for fountains that if they wash in this fountain, they'll be washed forever and have life again? And if this is something that God is offering to us, what kind of bread is it then that I am buying and I'm consuming that is not satisfying me? It's an important question in light of John 6. This morning we come to the supper and the Lord spreads out bread and wine for us. And what do I think and what do you think is happening when we do this? It's a fair question. What does Jesus really mean for us? What does he mean for us and what is he accomplishing for us when we partake in faith? Is it possible that I could really be here this morning and miss what this is all about and eat the wrong bread? I want you to think about that question. Could you eat the wrong bread this morning? There's no place better than John 6 to understand this. It's the whole Christian life summed up. This is the heart of it this morning. I think John builds to this this morning. Was it 70-some verses in this chapter? 71, I think. 71 verses in this chapter. All on this issue. There's something that Jesus asks Philip early on in verse 5 that really is the key to understanding what this text is about this morning. Jesus is sitting on a mountain and multitudes are coming up to him. You get the imagery here. He looks up and he sees this, multitudes flocking to him. And he asks this question. He looks over at Philip and he asks a question, testing him. Philip had a kind of engineer's mind. And if you know an engineer, they're always calculating. Jesus looks at him. Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And then it goes on to say that Jesus said this testing him. Jesus was testing him because Jesus knew what he himself would do. This was a giant test for his own disciples. And that means in some ways it's a test for us today, isn't it? Where will you buy bread that you may eat? And so everything that goes on now from this, it follows from that question that Jesus poses right up at the beginning of this narrative. Jesus here feeds the 5,000, and there's mass misunderstanding with this event. So much misunderstanding that verses 16 all the way to verse 71, he's explaining the significance of it. That means that to the natural mind, it just doesn't come. And Jesus is explaining the significance, the heart of it being explaining who He is and what He has come to do, what He has come to be for people. And whenever you have questions like this from Jesus, think of this question initially, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? you should know by now with our lord especially if you spend any time in john's gospel that there's always a deep intention and a deep meaning that the lord here is provoking for his people to understand and to look into this if you were to go through john's gospel you see this everywhere jesus shows us this repeated problem remember when he made the statement to nicodemus nicodemus you must be born again and that is when he takes a dead heart and he implants life there he makes the heart alive Nicodemus didn't get it the first thing Nicodemus said well lord how do I go get back in a womb he saw it with the woman at the well the woman at the well uh you know if you knew who this was who was offering you living water you would have asked him water giving you a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water well sir where can i go get that that i don't have to keep coming back to get water this is tough work destroy this temple and i'll raise it up in three days what is this man saying took 46 years to build this temple he wasn't talking about the physical structure even though it would come down jesus is not just after filling bellies and in fact that is the problem in this text and jesus is using this feeding miracle this morning to explain that we really need to be satisfied. And that the problem is, is we don't understand where true satisfaction comes. That we need eternal life, that we need to be able to see. And have you ever stopped in life and the common experiences that we have with things, have you ever thought about the fact that God created them, that they would ultimately be experienced as this word comes and gives us a true spiritual understanding. In other words, you're going to go home today and you're going to have warm bread maybe for lunch. If you've ever pulled bread out of an oven and you're hungry, what is that like? It's an immediately satisfying experience, isn't it? It's wonderful. And there's something about it that provides instant nourishment to your bodies. It fills, it satisfies. This is essentially what Jesus is doing. He's taking common realities that we know, and we'll get a little bit more here to the supper in a minute, common realities that we know to describe what you need in the soul, what you need in giving spiritual life. This is what he's doing here. And so you see this today using the basic understanding that we have of hunger. Hunger. The problem is, is that people are so living for the temporary things to try to satisfy this giant hole in us to be satisfied, trying to fill that, that they never really will listen to what Jesus is saying. And Jesus here is going to demonstrate the power to give. I mean, this is the work of god that you believe the power to break into the hard heart and that's what i love about this the meaning this morning is so clear what jesus is saying is this great spiritual truth this is what i am like to your souls what bread is like out of the oven the problem we'll look at is that people don't see this and what we have in john 6 is jesus coming demonstrating i've not come here to satisfy your sinful carnal appetites that's not why i'm here but i want you to be satisfied with me that's what he's saying so they are restless and jesus now is is pressing upon them a miracle and he spends so much time preaching the meaning of this that by the time he's done the tragic thing that happens by the time he's done with this particular miracle the multitudes walk away. They got it. They understood what he was saying. And that's the test. That's the test this morning for us. If you understand what he's saying, you have to be able to answer Philip's question, where shall we buy bread that we may eat? This is what it is about this morning. Here's the scene. He leaves Jerusalem and he's traveling to the far side of the Sea of Galilee. We read in verse 2 that a large crowd was following him, and then you have this continued statement in John, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. And the thing that you should say is, oh boy, here we go again. Is that good? Multitudes are following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing. And initially, it really does challenge the basic motivations for following Christ. As a follower of Christ, here are all these Christians, so-called, following Him. But what is it about Jesus that they were really attracted to? That's what we're being challenged with here. Why are we following Jesus? Why are we really here? What does the text show us this morning? Well, if you were to go back to chapter 2, right at the end of chapter 2, remember that statement when we looked at John 3 quite a bit back. But he said this. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs, which he did. But Jesus did not believe in them because he knew what was in man. So in other words, they believed in him. He did not believe in them because their following was only for a thrill. They were thrill-seekers. John's gospel is a gospel of belief, and Jesus is constantly exposing this as you go through John, that people need thrills to follow Him. People need thrills to follow Him. And you'll see how much this touches right to us. So whatever is about to happen, if you know our Lord by now and you've studied His Word, you know he's going to confront this. You know he's going to attack this. He's going to address this. He's not going to let this go. He is going to tackle this head on. And so much so that you know the ending of this. So what the text is then showing us this morning is two competing agendas. You have the people's agenda for Jesus and Jesus' agenda for the people's. And they're not the same. What agenda did the people have for Christ? Well, the text makes it clear that they're looking upon all the diseased and Jesus is healing powers and all the sick and they now see him. They see him take, look at this, five loaves and a couple small fish and he just keeps breaking and breaking and breaking and feeds 5,000 people. How many people are here this morning? 400? The other day I was in the feed store in Escondido some of you know this and i bumped into a guy who openly claimed to be jesus i've never had that before a conversation did not go well he pointed someone pointed out to me that if he were really jesus the last place he would need to be is the feed store but imagine for a minute that i was at the feed store and you were at the feed store and there was a man there making that claim i'm a little bit skeptical you're a little bit skeptical then you see him heal someone and he spits on the ground and he makes this little patty and and somebody who's blind he walks up and he tells him to go wash and they're healed imagine my uncle lazarus who's been dead for a while i take him down to the grave lifts him up what do you think's going to happen in escondido thousands are going to start coming to him What do you think is on their minds as they are thinking about this? You know, imagine he then has them sit down on a hill in Escondido. And he's concerned to feed and he starts feeding all of these people. I mean, feeding them. We're in hard economic times, aren't we? We see a lot of corruption of government. We don't trust leaders. Many of you now are facing times where you're just struggling to make ends meet. What do you think I'm going to say to the next guy? Did you see what this guy can do? Can you hear the conversation going around among the multitudes? You know, I'm going to say, I mean, my child has been sick for some time. I think Jesus could fix him. My aunt, I think Jesus could fix her. I think, you know, he's so powerful. I think he could take all this chaos that we're experiencing and he could fix it. Now, here's what I believe happened. Jesus goes up on a mountain and he sits. You have the imagery and you're walking out to Jesus who's sitting on the mountain. What is going through the Jewish mind at this minute? I believe the text is showing you that something very specific is on their mind. What is specifically on their mind? I want you to look down at verse 14. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, this is truly the prophet who has come into the world. That is a big moment in the Gospels. All the Jews had been looking for the prophet. The prophet was the one promised to Moses. that's deuteronomy the lord your god will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst from your brethren him you shall hear you hear what they're saying he's here he's come up on a mountain giving bread sound familiar this is reminiscent this is a reenacted scene of moses who gave bread in the wilderness and the whole thing is a kind of ultimate fulfillment to explain that whole phenomenon in exodus and that god rained down bread from heaven and now we know what's on their minds the same thought that's on the mind of nicodemus no one no one could do these signs unless god is with him so they're all talking you can imagine this is the prophet this is the prophet the prophet has come we are living in the time when the prophet has come. This is the prophet like unto Moses. And then you kind of probe a little bit deeply. What did they expect prophets to do? Well, whenever a prophet spoke, it was done. When he commanded blessing, blessing came. When Elijah called for rain, rain came. Kingdoms were overturned at their words. This is the prophet just gave us bread. They knew Hosea 12. By a prophet, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. And by a prophet, Israel was preserved. Well, did you notice that one particular event is being mentioned in the heart of this it's the what the passover what did the passover celebrate i want you to imagine this the passover's happening they're all flocking out to him at the time of the passover the passover celebrated god breaking the yoke of egyptian oppression didn't it delivering them now Jesus lifts up his eyes and he sees them all come here they all come prophet like Moses it gets even better verse 15 we find not only did they say the prophet has come they said the king has come and we read in verse 15 when they perceived that they were when jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king look this was no plan b that the throne was ready to go up they were ready to enthrone him make him king the king has come what does jesus do he departs from it all i want nothing to do with it and we should be rather shocked at this for a minute he wanted nothing to do with their agenda for him what two things right now does everyone want recovered in this country you know what it is you want your prosperity back and you want a model king if i asked all of you to sum up the two things you want recovered in this country you want your prosperity back and you want a good king you want a good leader you want a good president how many political agendas use jesus for this how many people going further use jesus for their own agendas we want jesus to fit our agenda we want jesus to be what what we've determined he needs to be for us and how often i mean now we'll take this a little bit further How often do you say, I'm just so blessed, and what is the first thing that comes out of our mouth? This is true. What's the first thing that comes out? The Lord is so good. What makes Him good? I've got my health. I've got a beautiful home. My children are all doing great. The first thing that would come and threaten the good American life, the first thing that would threaten are these kind of things. What would we do? Fall apart. We attach Jesus all the time to our definition of satisfaction and happiness. And I want you to know he turns his back on that. We do this today with worship. How many of us come here thinking in the days of Ezekiel, I just want to come here and hear a great sermon today. I want to come here and have a great experience today. And if we don't get it on our terms, what happens? We complain. And you see, we're really getting to the heart here of following. Jesus didn't come to bow down and to serve our definition of him for us. He didn't primarily come to give you physical bread, even physical bread, even though he cares about doing that. Even though you're going to go home today, and you'll notice here when he breaks the bread, he gives thanks to God. He cares about that. And he wants you to enjoy the good gifts that he gives you. This is not a goofy ascetic sermon where he's saying you have to throw away all your stuff. That's not what this is. He cares about taking care of you and letting you enjoy these things. But here's the point. Here's what the people missed. Their right to call him a prophet, their right to want him as a king, and yet in all of it, they had the wrong Jesus. The very thing condemned in this chapter is that men were seeking for the bread which what? Perishes. And not the bread which endures to everlasting life. And we do this all the time. And the simple message here, you can never use Jesus in pursuit of his good gifts to the end that in those things, manipulate him that in those things you will find your happiness. It's not it. So what does he do? He tests them with the purpose for which he's come. He knows people have come out superficially. He knows the multitudes have come to him superficially. You know what Mark says about this account? Here's how amazing, I mean, how wonderful your Lord is. He knows this, and how does he treat the people? When Jesus came out and saw the great multitude, he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. He knows they're there for all the wrong reasons. Deep within him, he's looking at these people, and he's filled with compassion because they're seeking fulfillment everywhere else. So what does he do? He looks at Philip. Philip, where are these going to buy bread that they may eat? Where shall we? But he said this to test him for he knew what he would do. The disciples should have caught on by now. When Israel was in the wilderness, this was their question. Moses, where is Israel going to get bread to eat in the wilderness? Where? What did the Lord do? The Lord did something amazing. The Lord's response comes right, and Jesus interacts with that here. The Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out, and they shall gather their quota every day, that I may test them. See it? The whole event is reenacted. The bread event was a testing event. How could it be done? How could it be done? Philip says, 200 denarii worth is not enough to buy bread for each of them even to get a little. Another one says, wow, there's this young boy over here who has a couple barley loaves, five barley loaves and two small fish. Jesus then commands them to sit down. And he takes the bread. Can you imagine this? He holds it out. Thank you, Lord, for providing this bread. And he makes him sit down and notice the emphasis is on the loaves here. And he begins to break it. And he keeps going. And he just keeps going. So that after the 5,000 are full, there's 12 baskets. But I want you to notice what it says. How the emphasis of the text is. They had as much as they wanted. What a remarkable scene. Nothing was lost. Just like the manna given to Israel, he fed the multitudes by changing a few loaves into so much bread, everyone was stuffed in their bellies. Stuffed, plumb full. He stuffed them. People ate, and they rose. What do you think happened? Well, Israel, out in the wilderness, What did they do after they were fed? They complained. This worthless bread. There was meat back in Egypt. We're tired of this. We're tired of this. You know, this is just, we're doing it too much bread. You're giving it too often. We're just tired of it. Well, what happens in this scene? The next day, they come back looking for him. He departs. Remember, they wanted to make him king. He departs. They find him. And then a mass confrontation takes place. What do they want? They want another feeding. And Jesus looks at them and says, You seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life which the Son of Man will give you. You are seeking me, do you hear it? Not because you understand what this bread represents. You're seeking me. You don't understand what the sign signifies. You don't perceive it. You're unable to perceive it. And they shoot back. Well, what sign then are you going to give us? You think, they just gave them one. What sign are you going to give us? And then they say, what makes you, Jesus, so much better than Moses? He fed us for how many years? you've done it once 40 years we got bread he rained it down to the tent door you be good like that we'll follow you jesus says no you got it all wrong moses didn't give you that bread the bread of god verse 33 is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I don't think I could ever get beyond verse 35. Every time I read it, I think it's one of the most powerful, life-changing verses in the New Testament. They say, give us this bread, then we'll try out your bread. We want bread like Moses gave. Look at what Jesus says. The bread of God is he who comes down and gives life to the world. Give us this bread. I am the bread of life. he who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst I'm the bread you know Jesus will go on and he will so press them on this you know what he says he says whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I'll raise him up at the last day. My flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. You know, I wanted to title the sermon this morning, You Must Eat His Flesh. And I told my wife, I said, I don't know, that's pretty provocative. Can you imagine if a visitor sees that? You're going to think we're a bunch of cannibals. Do you know it was that issue when Jesus said it? That they said the man's crazy we are out of here and from that time on minnie drew back and followed him no more it was over at that point this was the breaking point you've got to eat him you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood said jesus i'm not here to give wonder bread this is not about fulfilling your american dream you need to be filled with me i need to give life into your hearts i need to give life into your dead lives and the saddest reality in this section is what did they do they complained it's the same thing as israel in the wilderness they complained now i have to challenge why are you here is it like pulling teeth to get you here some we see very occasionally if that's what it is you see what jesus how are you different than these people jesus is confronting us saying you're all trying to go out there and be satisfied you're all trying to find satisfaction your way and you're not listening to what i'm telling you I'm pleading with you every week, you need to be filled with my life. You need to eat my flesh and drink my blood. What is he saying? Just like what you're going to receive in food, when it nourishes your body, you need that for your souls. Your souls need to be nourished. I'll do that for you. I will satisfy the taste buds of your souls because I know you're all restless. And now you begin to see what the miracle is describing this morning. When the people ate the physical food and were stuffed to the belly, what were they experiencing? They were receiving a sign of what can really be experienced inwardly by faith. They can be spiritually fed and nourished. And that's a test this morning. Come back to Philip's question. Where will you get bread? You put your name here. Where will you buy bread that you may eat? Well, Lord, I want you to be bread for me, but can you do this first? Can you be this for me first? Can you fix this first? Can you give me this thrill first? The bread I give, says Jesus, is life for the world. It's enough. You need to eat this bread today. we're coming to the table. You could eat this bread physically this morning. You could eat this bread physically, and it will profit you absolutely nothing if you don't come with a believing heart. And if you don't come with a believing heart, that's why I said this is poison. Because Jesus, the New Testament makes very clear that you can eat and drink judgment if you want to come to his table with an unbelieving heart. When we come here this morning, we're not the performers. We're not making it special. We're not recommitting, in a sense, and telling Jesus that we are doing this for Him. It's not even just remembering. Jesus is telling you something far more that you need than that. He has to do a great work of God for you. You have to believe. And when you come and you eat the bread and the wine with believing hearts, he is feeding your spiritual life. He is feeding your souls with the true bread from heaven himself. Now, when you come to Philip's question, where shall we buy bread that we may eat? You don't buy it. You don't buy the bread. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat. Incline your ear and come to me and your soul shall live. Eat and drink and you will be satisfied. That's what he wants from us this morning. That's a believing heart that trusts him, that understands one thing. Jesus came to save us from our sins. That's your problem. And that's what you need him for. So that, you know, if in life I'm like Job, and one day I've lost everything and my children are taken from me and my health and wealth is gone so that I'm scraping off the scabs and sitting in dust, you know what I can still say? Blessed be the name of the Lord. I know that my Redeemer lives. And so I close saying this. Are you able today to taste and to see that the Lord is good? Come, eat. Eat and enjoy. Eat as he invites you to his table to have the bread of life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise your name and are so thankful that you instruct us and confront us where we need to be confronted because we are very superficial in our following. And we have all sorts of competing agendas than yours. And we ask for forgiveness for this. And our hearts are constantly trying throughout the course of our weeks to find satisfaction in other things, whether it be addictions, whether it be things. And we take your good gifts, which you give us to enjoy, and we start worshiping these things. And we ask for forgiveness for that too. And as we come this morning, we ask that you would feed us. Oh, we're so thankful in this passage that our Lord said what needed to be said and gave his life that today we might come and enjoy the true bread from heaven. Let us receive this with believing hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.