Sunday, February 12, 2017

“Giving Bread, Being Bread” (John 6:1-15) - Seven Signs of Christ IV -

“We Preach Christ Crucified”
There is one story that I always keep in mind as I prepare the message. This story is about one church in England. At first, the slogan of this church on the front door was always "We Preach Christ Crucified." But after many years, this sign changed to "We Preach Christ." They still preached Christ, but not necessarily Christ “Crucified.” They started focusing more on Jesus' moral life, his teaching and his philosophy than on his death and resurrection. And some people had left the church. A few years later, the church changed its sign once again. It became "We Preach." From that time on, the church started preaching any topics from politics, ethics to all kinds of social issues. Then more people had left the church. And eventually, the church had to close down. I had a chance to do some street evangelism with other Thai Christians in Thailand when I was an exchange student there. I was kind of surprised by two things. First of all, I was surprised that people were very receptive. They listened attentively. Several of them followed sinner’s prayer and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But then, I was also surprised that they didn’t want to make any change in their lives. They said, “Buddhism is a good thing. It teaches me how to live and gives me peace of mind. And now I found that Jesus is good too. He gives me freedom and blessing. To me, they are all good and compatible. I will keep them both!” What do you think? When you say, “I believe in Jesus,” what does it mean by that?

Jesus, Giver of Bread
Today’s passage, the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, is quite famous and written in all four gospels. In particular, both Matthew and Mark observed that Jesus did heal people, teach them, and feed them because he “was moved with compassion for them” (Matt 14:14; Mark 6:34). In other words, Jesus cares about us. He cares about our health. He cares about our food. He cares about our needs. He took the five loaves and the two fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves and gave them to the people. They were all well fed and satisfied – and even 12 baskets of leftovers! After they saw this great miracle, all of sudden they remembered manna and Moses’ messianic prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him!” (cf. Acts 7:37, 52) The people began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (14). It looks like finally they understood who Jesus is. It looks like finally they came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. In the following verse, verse 13, they made an attempt to take Jesus by force. They came to kidnap him, to promote him as their king, and to make him serve their agenda and their needs by force. They acknowledged, “Jesus, be our King, our Prophet, the Giver of bread!” But Jesus was not pleased with this. He knew they neither saw nor believed who He really is. Jesus said to them, “You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs” (26, NLT).

Jesus, Bread of Life
Jesus fed the people because he did care about their needs. There is no doubt about that, but this miracle is called the sign (semeion) that points to something much greater. There is a much more important purpose why Jesus fed the 5000. By this miraculous sign, Jesus wanted to teach his people the following truth: He did not come into the world just to give bread, but to be bread. The people were still excited about the miracle performed by Jesus the day before and asked him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!” (34) And Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst” (35). Then, they began to grumble about him and said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” You see, there is a huge difference between “giving bread” and “being bread.” The people were glad to believe Jesus as the one who gives bread. They were willing to make him king because he was useful. They would enjoy bread from him. They were much more interested in the product of the miracle than the person of the miracle. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus is the bread of life. Yes, they were seeking Jesus. But they were seeking Jesus as useful, not us precious. They were seeking Jesus as useful for the bread, the money, the health, the prosperity. But in John 6, Jesus plainly proclaims the main purpose why he came to the world: He did not come into the world to give bread, but to be bread.

Jesus, Bread to Eat
So Jesus clearly 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!” (52) What does it mean to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood? Of course, Jesus was not proposing religious cannibalism. Instead, what he was saying here is intimacy – believer’s union with Christ. In verse 56 Jesus said, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” – intimate union with Christ! To eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood means to have an intimate union with him. It is to know him intimately.

J.C. Ryle, pastor of Church of England in 19th century, had awakened many preachers and Christians. At that time, many people believed if they were baptized and members of the church, they would be saved and go to heaven when they died. But J.C. Ryle, in his sermon Christ Is All, said, “Let us understand that Christ will be all in heaven… What a sweet and glorious home heaven will be to those who have loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity!... But alas, how little fit for heaven are many who talk of "going to heaven" when they die, while they manifestly have no saving faith, and no real acquaintance with Christ. You give Christ no honour here. You have no communion with Him. You do not love Him. Alas! what could you do in heaven? It would be no place for you. Its joys would be no joys for you. Its happiness would be a happiness into which you could not enter. Its employments would be a weariness and a burden to your heart. Oh, repent and change before it be too late!”[1] Ryle concludes that the surest way to prepare for heaven is to begin a real, personal relationship with Christ. Jesus said, in verse 54, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Let us go back to our first question: When you say “I believe in Jesus,” what does it mean by that? To believe in Jesus is to commune with Jesus. It is to eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood everyday. It is to abide in him, and he in me every moment. In today’s passage the people began to realize that to believe in Jesus, to commune with Jesus requires a deep profound change in their lives. They began to realize that it doesn’t work to follow Jesus without making any change. And they said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?” (60) Then they turned back and no longer followed Jesus. It was all too much for them to take in.

Come and Eat!
But thankfully, today’s story is a story with a happy ending. Jesus’ disciples remained faithful. Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (67-69). They chose to believe, commune, eat, drink, and follow Jesus.

We know God through Jesus. We know Jesus through His word. Peter said, “You have the words of eternal life.” And Jesus himself said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (63b). We know and commune with Jesus through his word. Let us come and eat his word. There are good devotional books – upperroom and disciplines. There are lots of good sermons out there. But most of all, take up his word and listen to his word firsthand. Listen to Jesus at his feet. Ask him questions. Talk to him. Have a conversation with him. Commune with him. And I am 100% sure you will fall in love with him. You will trust him more, obey him more, rejoice in him more, and love him more.

“Oh, how I love your word! I meditate on it all day long!” (Ps 119:97)
“How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps 119:103)

Let us come and eat! Let us eat Jesus and his word, the bread of heaven, and we will be truly satisfied – never hunger, never thirst, never die again – and have real and eternal life today. Amen.








[1] J.C. Ryle, “Christ Is All,” http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/christ_is_all.htm

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