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. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24
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.25
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26
Jesus answered 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. 27
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.” 28
Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30
So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”32
Jesus then 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. 33
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
It is very important that we remember that the Bread of Life Discourse that we will look at the next couple of days took place at the time of the Passover, as 6:4
makes clear. The Passover was THE event for the Jewish people, it was their Christmas; it was a celebration of their deliverance from Egypt by the grace of God and their being called out as God’s people.
Jesus is saying, among other things, that HE is the interpretation of the Passover. What they had been celebrating for all these centuries was only a picture of a
reality, and HE is that reality.
If you remember, back in Exodus 24 the people of God had been brought out of Egypt and they are making their way to the promised land. Israel comes before God in a
solemn worship service and Moses as the minister of the word, proclaims the word of God. Scripture is read and preached and then Moses goes upon the mountainside with the elders and we are read that they “eat and drink in the presence of God”.
We don’t have time this morning to look at all the times in the Bible, from Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek to the marriage supper of the Lamb, over and over
again, the eating and drinking in God’s presence seals, solidifies and is the culmination of the gospel promises of God to those He loves.
Exodus 24, Moses and the elders are up on the mountain to eat in the presence of God and what do we read here in John 6:3, “Then Jesus went up on a mountainside
and sat down with his disciples and the Jewish Passover Feast was near.” And so, the people, in the presence of God the Son, eat…they feast on the provision of God. This is no accident…Jesus is purposed in all of this and he now preaches His sermon to
help them understand that He is the bread, come down from heaven.
I hope we appreciate that among the reasons that the Lord’s Supper has been such a battlefield in the church’s history is that it is that important to the Christian
life, it is that important to YOUR life. The reason Satan has sought to corrupt it, obscure it or make it irrelevant should shout at us, that it is in fact, that important. There is something in this sacrament that I would argue is revealed in Jesus’ sermon
about the feeding of the 5000 that we are missing today and the Church of Christ is suffering because of it. And if we recover it, it will be for us and for our children, an awakening of grace and power for us as we live in this world.
“Jesus’ Church Shrinkage Program” is a title from a book I read some time ago. In that book, the author suggested that here, in John chapter 6, in Christ’s sermon
about the feeding of the 5000, we find Jesus’ big chance to score…to really gain popularity and prestige in the culture of the first century…his popularity was building, there was a crescendo growing and folks were ready as we see in 6:15, to make Jesus
king by force…and He blew it! And instead of adding to the numbers, instead of getting bigger and bigger and building the first Christian mega-church, the numbers got smaller and smaller and He was marginalized and his disciples became less not more and His
popularity disappeared and instead of coming to hear him preach, they wanted to kill him. Calvin called this sermon the seal of what Jesus would give us as a gift. In other words, here is the history, Jesus is presenting the truth of what he would later establish
in the ceremony that we call, The Lord’s Supper.
In this text, Jesus quotes from Exodus 16:15; “He gave them, (the folks in the wilderness) bread from heaven to eat.” This sermon, John 6, is an explanation
of that passage! But let’s begin by asking the question: Why are these people following Jesus? Is it because they were torn to the heart due to their sin? Were they in great awe of the Savior who had come from God? Did they love Jesus and want to follow Him
no matter what? No.
Jesus reveals the reason the crowds are coming after him, he knows the heart and he speaks to the heart’s motives 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.’
The crowd had been following him, and they may have even seemed earnest, they were not those who could be called disinterested. All the appearances were in order,
but the Lord reveals the motive of their hearts, they wanted something, it was about them, not about Jesus at all. So, is it enough to have an association with Jesus…even to tag along where He is, and even listen to what He has to say? Is that enough to just
hang around folks once in while who seem to have some kind of interest in him? No, it is not. Jesus knows what is going on at the deepest level of who we are.
Do you remember when the sinful woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair? The bible says that Simon the Pharisee thought in his heart,
if Jesus knew who this woman was, He wouldn’t let that sinner touch Him. The next thing that we read is that Jesus answered him saying… But Simeon didn’t say anything…he only thought it…but Jesus answered his thoughts…that would get my attention!!!
Here, at the feeding of the 5000 Jesus again reveals that He knows why these people are following him…So…that means he knows why you and I are following Him too. Saint
Augustine once said, “How seldom it is that Jesus is sought for the sake of Jesus.” One wonders if anything has changed. Do we seek Jesus for the sake of Jesus? For His glory? For the honor that is His as the Son of God? Or do we think that Christianity
is about what Jesus can do for me?
The crowd is coming to him for food, they want something just as they did when he multiplied the loaves and fish. They want some further proof, (v.28) one can only
wonder what that meant, they had seen him doing miracles, but this is for sure, they wanted something that was about THEM. Jesus is going to turn the tables, He is going to preach from the text they referred to but as with all of the Scripture, He will make
it clear that redemption, and therefore all of the Bible finds its fulfillment, its purpose, its hope…in Him.
The first point of Jesus’ sermon from the Exodus 16:4 passage, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat”, is this: HE gave them.
They argued that Moses gave them bread from heaven. Jesus says, No, God gave the bread and you have missed the point!!! God’s purpose is that you see that He will
now give you the true bread from heaven. In other words, what God was doing in the wilderness is being interpreted by Jesus because they had missed the point of what God was doing and where everything was pointing, namely, to God’s provision
in Christ Jesus!
He takes them from history to the NOW! He says it was not about Moses then, it was about God then AND it is about God now. In a sense, Jesus is teaching us here, how
to preach, how to interpret the Bible and as He makes clear elsewhere, redemption has always been about Him. God the Son, revealed through history as the Savior of sinners…it has always been Him!
God is the One who has provided full redemption; food, nourishment not only for the body but for the soul and that bread, even like the manna in the Old Testament
is a picture that takes us away from self, away from this world, away from man, to the provision of eternal food, THE food of God come down from Heaven, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Prayer: Father, you have given me everything I need for life and godliness. You have and continue to provide for Your wilderness people, true bread, true sustenance
through the power of Your Spirit. In deep humility I give You thanks. My heart is laid low to consider all that You have done so that I might be fed true bread, that I might be loved by the Father and the Son, and given the Holy Spirit. Father, help me to
live in the power and provision of heaven this day, to the glory of Jesus, my Brother, Savior, Friend and King, in His name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence