Our sermon text this evening comes from John 6, John, the fourth gospel, the sixth chapter of John. And as I take a look at our order of worship, I realize I typed the wrong number when I set the total verses. We're going to be looking at verse 25 through 59 this evening, but I'm going to begin reading a little bit sooner than that at verse 16. I'm going to read from verse 16 to verse 59. And if you would also please turn with me in your blue Psalter hymnals to Lord's Day 28. It's page number 37 in the back of your blue Psalter hymnals. We're going to be looking at Lord's Day 28 in conjunction with this passage in John 6. We're going to look specifically at question and answer 76, which is found on page 37. But first what's going to happen is we're going to hear a reading of the Word of God. And at that point, we're going to turn to the catechism, and I'm going to read question 76, and together we'll read the response. So first, let's turn to John 6. I would just like to say, by way of beginning, that we do have a long passage to look at this evening. And I know that the tendency can sometimes be to tune out during the reading of the Word of God, but I would encourage us all to read along with. This is a story, a beautiful story. And as we read it, we should remember the importance of hearing God's word because in it is contained all of the truth of what God has to say to us. And so as we hear this read and as we read along with, we're reading God's very words to us. And so let's continue to pay attention, even though this will be a long passage that we take a look at. So, John 6. Now, John 6 begins with a story of the feeding of the 5,000, And then we turn to Christ walking on water. And so we begin with verse 16, where it says, When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, And they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat. And immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near to the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal. Then they said to Him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent. So they said to Him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father 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. Then they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you, you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled 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 does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble. amongst yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me, not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed amongst themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said all these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. This is the word of the Lord. Directly after our passage, many people desert Jesus because of how hard this teaching was. We turn now also to page 37 in the Blue Psalter Hymnals to Questions and Answers 76. I will read the question and then let's together read the answer. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured out blood? It means to accept with a living heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and by believing to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more by Christ's blessed body. And so, although he is in heaven, and we are on earth, we are flesh to his flesh, and bone to his bone, and we forever live on, and are governed by one spirit, as members of our body, our one soul. Let's say a prayer together before the sermon. Heavenly Father, this evening, we pray that you would speak. We pray you would speak to us through your word. We pray you would speak to us through your sermon. And we pray our hearts would be receptive to listen. Please teach us to want to feast upon you the true and living bread of life. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, people of God, I have a question for you. Is there a food that you crave? Is there one food that you have that you feel as though you can't live without, that you just really would not want to ever be without? I was talking to my mother a couple of, well, it was a couple of years ago now, and she let me in on a conversation that she had with my sister, my next younger sister. She said that in the course of the conversation, they were talking about the foods that both of them craved. And my sister, whose name is Natalie, is a little bit of a health food nut. And so she told my mother, I just crave whole grain breads. I crave them. All I want to eat often is just whole grain bread. And my mom commented on how fortunate my sister was. She said, Natalie, I understand that craving, but I have the same sort of thing, but for chocolate. It's very different. And, you know, I think that we all understand those sorts of cravings. In this passage that we're looking at this evening, there's a whole crowd of people, a crowd of people that seemed to have a craving that was similar to my sister Natalie's craving. They loved the bread that they filled their stomachs with when Christ fed the 5,000. There were five loaves of barley that Christ had made feed a whole crowd of 5,000 men. And this crowd of people were coming again to Jesus because they hoped that their bellies would be filled again with this whole grain bread and that they'd find satisfaction in this food that they had been given. But you see, Jesus, in our passage, was offering something much better than bread. He was offering Himself, His very self, to these people. And you see, it's His self that He offers to us as well this evening. And so the question of this sermon becomes, is Christ enough? Is He enough for us? Is He sufficient for us? Is Jesus Christ our only true and only real, our deepest craving and longing? Is Jesus our deepest and our true sustenance? That's what we hope to talk about this evening. And we're going to talk about it in looking at John's Gospel, the sixth chapter. We're going to look at it in three points. First, we're going to look at the crowd's carnal concerns. The fleshly concerns that this crowd had. This crowd had very carnal concerns. It was to fill their bellies. Second, we'll look at Christ, what Christ says about his divine definition of what this bread is, of who he was, his divine definition. And last, we'll turn to Christ's divisive demand, his last demand to eat his body and to drink his blood. And that's what we'll be taking a look at. First, this crowd's carnal concerns, then Christ's divine definition, and last, his divisive demand. So we turn first to these concerns of the crowd. Now Christ had performed a really amazing and a very important miracle at the very beginning of John 6. We know it's an important miracle because it's the one miracle story that's actually picked up by each one of the Gospel authors. This feeding of the 5,000 is repeated in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, and so we know it's important enough for each one of the Gospel authors for us to see it and realize that something important is happening here in this miracle. This miracle had generated quite a bit of buzz because Jesus had fed a substantial number of people. There were 5,000 men is what John 6 tells us, so likely many more than that, perhaps 15,000 people, maybe more. And Christ had taken the lunch of one boy, five loaves and two fish, he had multiplied it to feed this entire multitude. And not only he had fed them, but there was so much that there was an abundance left over. Twelve bushels. And so he had shown his power in feeding this people in abundance. In a great abundance. You see, these people had been fed and wanted to get fed again with bread. And so when they woke up the next day and they looked around and they saw that Jesus wasn't there, they thought, well, he must have gone across the sea. Let's go and find him. And so they loaded up in boats and they all went to try to find him. But it's again because they wanted to fill their bellies with the bread that he had given them the day before. And they come to Jesus and they ask him a question that seems innocuous enough. They ask Jesus, Rabbi, when did you come here? But, you know, their question really wasn't when did you come here? they wanted to know how they could get more bread. And we could sort of picture the conversation that may have taken place beforehand. Don't just jump right to it. Get him talking a little bit. And then once he's talked a little bit, maybe bring up the fact that you're hungry again and you know yesterday he fed you, maybe he'll do it again. So they start out with this innocuous question. Oh, how'd you get here, Rabbi? But Jesus knows immediately, immediately what they're trying to say. And he answers, Truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. He tells them, don't work for this food that's willing to perish. Work for everlasting food that I can give you. And this probably seems like an attractive prospect to these individuals. Oh, yesterday he gave us food that perished. Today he's talking about a food that's going to last forever. And so Jesus talks about believing in him that they might receive this food. And they're like, well, give us a sign. And you see, this sign that they ask for is another sort of sneaky question. Because this is what they say. They say, our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. They said, do this sign. And you see what they're asking? They're saying, now Jesus, we want a sign to believe you that you have this eternal bread that we could have. And so we just would like one sign. How about the sign of Moses? Remember what he did? He gave the people bread every day. So, you know, if you give us bread each day, we'll come to believe you. Again, they wanted their stomachs to be filled with this bread. They didn't want Christ, but they wanted what he could offer them. And Jesus starts to answer them that it wasn't Moses that gave them that bread, it was the Heavenly Father, and that this bread is eternal. And so their last comment is, Sir, give us this bread always. And at first it seems like this is a believing request, doesn't it? It seems pretty clear in the dialogue that Christ has begun to talk of Himself as this bread. And the people respond by saying, We'd like this. Give us this bread, Jesus. Give it to us. But we know that this wasn't a believing request because just a couple verses later, Jesus says that they have seen Him, but they don't believe. So this is an unbelieving request. Again, not for Jesus, but for something that He offers. They long to fill their stomachs with the bread that He can multiply. This is a common, common response to what Jesus comes and offers. It's a similar response to what had been experienced just two chapters earlier in the Gospel of John. Jesus comes to a well and a Samaritan woman is there and she's drawing water and Christ talks about living water, that whoever drinks it will never thirst again. And her request is, oh, could I have some of that? I'd really like to not be thirsty again. And here the people hear about this living bread and they say, oh, could I have some of that bread? I'd really like to never be hungry again. It's a response that's all throughout the Gospels. The people don't want Jesus, but they want what He's offering, what they think He's offering. You know, today is Palm Sunday and we have another occasion of this taking place when Christ came into Jerusalem. The crowd gathered and they shouted Hosanna. They laid down their cloaks. They laid down palm branches and it looked as if they wanted Christ. what they really wanted was a political leader a king that would free them from the Romans they wanted what they thought Jesus could offer but they didn't want Jesus himself and in this, in their unbelieving responses the people in John 6 are saying we'd prefer lunch to what you're offering we want lunch and not you and as we hear this it's really not that surprising of a request, isn't it? I mean, many people today, many people live wanting the benefits, the perceived benefits of a relationship with Christ. And not wanting Christ himself. There are several examples of this. You know, there are some aphorisms that we hear that I've heard now and again. Very seriously, I hear that there are no atheists in foxholes. And less seriously, I hear that as long as there are tests administered in public schools, there will always be prayer in public schools. And both of these get at a point, don't they? That people in trying circumstances want there to be a God. They want to be able to pray to Him. And it's not wrong. It's very right to come to Christ in those hard circumstances, to turn to Him and want Him. But could it be that some of those people don't want Christ, but they want His protection in a foxhole? They may not want to submit their life to the Lord, but they don't want to die. Could it be that some people about to take tests don't want to submit themselves to Jesus, but want a good grade on their test? Oftentimes, people want His benefits without wanting Jesus. And we see some churches that are built on this model. They say, come to our church because you'll become a better you. You'll learn to have your best life right now. There are churches that advertise themselves promising all sorts of benefits, better parenting skills, better relationship with your spouse, more friends. There's a church recently that put up billboards saying if people came to church, they could have a better sex life. Again and again and again, we hear about churches that are willing to market the benefits of Christ without talking about Jesus himself. Are we ever tempted in that direction? Are we ever tempted to want Christ's benefits, to come to Him and want Him to give us things, to make our lives simple and easy, to give us career success, to give us relational success? Or do we want Jesus? And people of God, tonight, I just want to say I pray that it may never be that this congregation is one that wants to just talk about the benefits of Jesus apart from knowing and serving Jesus. May this never be a congregation that says, come to Escondido URC, you'll have a better relationship with your spouse. But may we say instead, come to worship with us because we feast on Christ in His Word. We feast on Him when the sacrament is administered. May we always have everything in order, in line, in straight, and not try to market the benefits of a relationship with Christ, but turn people to Christ himself. But why is it, why is it that we should want Jesus and not want his benefits, not firstly want his benefits? Well, it's because of who Christ is. It's because of who Jesus is. This is why the crowd should have wanted Jesus Christ. It's why we should want Jesus Christ. And John 6 gives us a very clear picture of who it is that Jesus is. Jesus is God. He is true God. And that's why he's so much better than any benefit that you could possibly have from knowing him. If you have Jesus, you have God himself. And see, John 6 makes that evident in several ways. It starts with the feeding of the 5,000. It starts in the feeding of the 5,000 where Jesus is able to feed 5,000 more, maybe 15,000 people with bread. And he took bread and he expanded it, right? But in this expansion of the bread, there's creation. there's a creational act he's taking bread he's making more of it and we know that it's only God that's able to create we know that his signs always point to the fact that he is the Messiah the one sent by the Father come to redeem his people and this one we have a clear picture of it because there's a creation aspect to it and so when the people saw Jesus was multiplying bread. They should not have thought, I could fill my stomach with that. What they rather should have thought is, that's something only God could do. So we see His divinity. The second way that we can see His divinity in our passage is that He calls people to believe on Him. To trust in His name. People ask, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus says, this is the work of God, that you believe in whom He has sent. Jesus says, believe in Me. Believe in Me. That's all that's required to receive this bread of eternal life. Christ could not have been calling people to believe on Him unless He was God. Anything else would have been certainly deficient, very deficient. By calling these people to believe on Him, He was proclaiming His divinity. But most clearly, most clearly, His claim of divinity comes twice in this passage. And it's when He uses the phrase, I am. I am. He talks about, I am the bread of life. And the word that He uses is a Greek phrase. It's two Greek words. It's ego, a me. It's two Greek words together that mean I am. But it's an odd sort of construction that's used. A Greek speaker wouldn't tend to use the words ego, eimi to say I am. Here Jesus is picking up on language from the Old Testament. Maybe you know of this already. It's so important to hear it again. He's picking up on language that God used when speaking to Moses. It's recorded in the book of Exodus, in Exodus 3, specifically verses 13 to 15. And I'm going to read those verses just briefly for us. Moses is experiencing God in the burning bush. God's told him to go talk to Pharaoh and to talk to the people of Israel and bring them out of captivity. And Moses says this, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, And they ask, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. You see, in that time, the Lord reveals his name. He reveals his name to Moses and he says, Moses, my name is I am. And there is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was originally written in Hebrew, but the Greek translation that picks up these words says that God says, Ego, Emi, the same words that Jesus says here in this passage, I am. And so in using this phrase, these listeners would have heard that and thought, that's what God said to Moses. This Jesus is not just saying that he's bread, he's also saying that he is God. Jesus is claiming to be God in this passage. And he does it in a couple of places. Once is when he's walking on the water, we read it. Our English translations tend to lose it. The disciples are frightened and the Lord draws near and he says, It is I, do not be afraid. And what Jesus says in this passage is, do not be afraid, a go, a me. What he says is, don't be afraid. I am. I am. And then when he talks about bread, he says, I am the bread of life. And in each of these, he's saying, I am God. Believe on me. and so of course Jesus didn't just want to fill these people's bellies with bread he had something so much better to offer so much greater so much more majestic he was willing to offer himself God himself he was willing to give these people God and they wanted lunch instead they wanted the gift instead of the giver. They came to Him and said, we'd really like some bread. He said, I'll give you Myself. And they said, no thanks. We'll take the bread. We don't want you, the giver. We'd rather just have your gifts. May it not be that we say the same thing. When confronted with Jesus Christ, may it never be that we say, no thanks, I'll take the good relationship with my spouse, I'll take a good family life instead. May it never be that we say, we'll take career success rather than serving and following you, our God. Because Jesus offers Himself very God to us. Very God. But then what he says gets worse and divides the people even more. Because he tells the people to eat him. The third point, Christ's divisive demand. He says to the people, eat me. You see, bread is made to be consumed. And Jesus saying that he was the bread of life, it follows that he would then say, consume me. And that's what he tells the people. He says that unless you eat of him, you have no part of him. He says, truly, truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is a hard teaching. It's a striking image. It's a very direct image. It's really quite disgusting. Jesus uses an odd word here in the Greek. It's used for the way that an animal were to eat. He says, gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood. He says, eat me as if you were an animal. Devour me. And we can understand how this would be a difficult teaching for these people and why it is that so many people would turn away and go home. What in the world? We came here for bread and he said we could eat him. That's disgusting. We can almost hear the conversations as people returned home. So did you get the bread? Did he feed you again? No, he said he was willing to feed us, but that we'd have to eat him. Oh, good, I'm glad you left. That's weird. It seems weird, doesn't it? It's graphic detail. It's graphic but compelling language. It talks about being united to God, but I, for one, am very thankful. that I stand on this side of the resurrection and at this point in history where people come together and come to help us understand what's being said here. Because it's this passage, this specific passage, this command of Jesus to eat, to gnaw on his flesh and to drink his blood that's picked up by the Heidelberg Catechism and explained for us. The very section that we learned is the Heidelberg Catechism's explanation of what it means. And as we hear this, we might wonder, how in the world do I eat Christ's body? How in the world do I drink his blood? The Catechism cites this passage in particular and tells us it means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and by believing receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. You see, this section points us back to what Christ said earlier. He said, what work is required to believe on me? And the Catechism is pointing out that that section really explains to us what it means to eat Christ's body and blood. That we believe in Him, that we trust in Him. And that with a believing heart we accept the full scandal of His suffering and His death, of His being broken for us, of His bleeding for us. And in so accepting that, that we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it doesn't just mean that, it means more. It means that through the Holy Spirit, we're united more and more to Christ's blessed body. So that He, though He's in heaven and we are on earth, are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, and forever live on and are governed by one Spirit, as members of our body are by one soul. What it's saying is this, is that what Christ is talking about is coming to acknowledge Him, is trusting on Him, is believing on Him, acknowledging His sufferings in His death and coming to trust in Him because of that. That's the action that we do whenever we come to the Lord's table to eat the bread and to drink the cup. We're accepting His full sacrifice on our behalf. We're accepting the scandal of His broken body and of His blood. And as we do that, we're united more and more to Christ's body by the Spirit. Our faith is strengthened. It grows as we trust in Him. That's what it means to eat His flesh and to drink His blood. When Christ tells us to do that in John 6, we follow that command by coming to His table, by hearing from His Word. And in so doing, we're united by the Spirit to Jesus Christ Himself. It's a beautiful thing that takes place when we come to eat the Lord's Supper and when we hear from His Word. And incidentally, I just want to speak briefly to the young people in this congregation. This is the reason that people who love you may be trying to push you to make profession of faith. Because they want you to experience the reality that's spoken of in John 6 and is talked about in question and answer 76. That when we eat the bread and when we drink the cup, we're partaking in the Lord's body and in His blood. We're being united by the Spirit to Him. It's something that we don't want to miss out on. If we can give a clear and a true and a reasonable profession of faith, we should not refrain from this. And so if you're somebody that's here that hasn't yet made profession of faith, it's time to consider, maybe it's time to do that. Maybe it's time for me to acknowledge my faith so I can feast on his body and on his blood. And in so doing, be united to him. Christ says if you do that, you will live forever. If you accept his full sacrifice, you will live with him forever. It's the promise of God. It's a great and a beautiful promise. And so as we come to a conclusion this evening, I just want to ask the question I asked at the beginning. Is Christ enough? Are you willing to make Christ your food? Are you willing to say, Jesus Christ, I come to you and I want you. I don't want any potential benefits I may have from becoming a Christian. I want you and I want all the potential trouble and hardship that may come with it. Are you willing to come to Jesus and say, your word and your sacraments are enough? And even if I never have success in my life or a great, if I never do a great job parenting, if I never have great relationships, you, Lord, are enough. And that's all I need. Are you willing to make Christ your deepest and your truest satisfaction? Can He be, is He, will He be your only sustenance, your only true sustenance? Brothers and sisters, let's not make the mistakes of this crowd whose concerns were only filling their stomachs with bread, but let's look to Christ, accept the fullness of His sacrifice given for us on the cross. And may it be enough to come and experience Him in His Word and in the sacrament. May that be enough for us. May our cravings for bread or chocolate or anything else never outweigh our craving and our desire for Jesus Christ because in Him is eternal life. And if we have Him, we have God Himself who gives us eternal life. What a beautiful promise. And what an amazing gift from an amazing giver, God Himself. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we come to you this evening thanking you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we thank you for the fact that he was willing to shed his blood on the cross he was willing to have his body broken on the cross and we thank you Lord that because we accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ. We thank You that by believing we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And we thank You, Lord, that we now are able to feast upon You and enjoy Your benefits. That when we come to worship we can glory in hearing from Your Word and feasting upon You when we hear it. Feasting upon Christ when we hear it. We thank You that when we come to the Lord's table we can again feast upon Him, be united by the Spirit with Him, and grow in our union with Him. Lord, please let Your Son, let Jesus Christ always be enough. Let Him always be enough. Let us never trade the giver for the gift. Let us never be distracted by what He gives us. And in so doing, forget Your Son. But let Him always trust Him and let Him be enough for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.