08-05-18
Sunday Evening
Service (Dig Deeper)
John 6:24-35
Our Reading for
tonight is John 6:24-35 NLT.
But let’s start
were we left off last week, Starting in verse 22.
22) The next day the crowd that had stayed on
the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized
Jesus had not gone with them.
23) Several boats from Tiberias landed near the
place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten.
24)
So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got
into the boats and went across to Capernaum {Ca-per-neim} to look for him.
25)
They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you
get here?”
26)
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you,
not because you understood the miraculous signs.
27)
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food.
Spend
your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.
For
God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
28)
They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29)
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you:
Believe
in the one he has sent.”
30)
They answered,
“Show
us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you.
What
can you do?
31)
After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness!
The
Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
32)
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth,
Moses
didn’t give you bread from heaven.
My
Father did.
And
now He offers you the True Bread from Heaven.
33)
The True Bread of God is the One who comes down from Heaven and gives life to
the world.”
34)
“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
35)
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life.
Whoever
comes to me will never be hungry again.
Whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.
36) But you haven’t believed in me even
though you have seen me.”
Let
us pray …
Tonight’s Lesson
is one of those which makes most of us sit with discomfort while we examine our
own lives.
However, I
believe there is a Great Reason why this lesson has fallen on Today.
·
A
day when we not only had a Missionary scheduled to bring their story
·
But
also we have one of our own, Pastor Fred Mikesell who left yesterday to go to
Africa on his mission’s trip.
Sometimes it is
difficult to see things within our own lives but it seems easier to point them
out in others.
Let me ask:
·
In our
world today, does it not seems like most of us,
·
And
maybe even-all of us; to some degree,
·
Don’t
We have things within our lives which are so Backwards.
If you are
confused, that’s OK.
·
For
an example of this, let’s take a look at how we “Get our Stuff?”
Is It Not the
Way-of-Today to:
·
Borrow
money so we can get the STUFF That We WANT Today?
o And then – Later – Maybe Tomorrow, that
is when we will worry about how we are going to pay for it
o And worry about what this purchase has
done to our credit rating?
And in all
reality,
·
Is
it not also true that we really can’t afford most of our STUFF that we already
have bought?
·
Nor
do we really need all of this stuff that we have anyway?
Don’t you see
this Downward Trend of Life
that we are in?
And is it not
true that it just seems that We Must
Buy like Brand Stuff.
·
New
Cars or New Trucks or New Furniture.
And all of this
comes way Before we even begin to think about investing into our future
·
SAVING
Money for Retirement
·
Or
Saving Money so we can putting down a large amount of money towards a house or
property?
·
And
what about investing into God’s Kingdom?
o What percentage are we investing in
God’s Work?
o Into Missions?
o Helping and saving the Lost
o The Lost who are Right Here at Home and
those in faraway lands.
And this Type of Thinking doesn’t only
stay in how we handle our money.
·
But
it soaks deep down into us
·
And
it directly affects how we live our lives within our relationships as well.
I know yesterday
we celebrated Lane and Sarah’s wedding
·
And
What a B E A Utiful Wedding that was
But Sadly, that
is not the norm.
Most of Our
Young People of Today want Play House first.
And it isn’t
just our young who fall into this.
·
We
want to move in together first.
·
And
give living together a try first,
o Just to see how it works out.
·
Then
We May even have a few children
o And see how that works out to
·
And
then, well, maybe later.
We do All of
this way Before We even start to think about or talk about marriage.
And the Biblical
thoughts such as:
·
Saving
up money
·
So
you can buy our stuff outright,
·
That
type of thought just seems to be as old as the ice ages.
When we buy
stuff
Instead of
us asking how much is the:
·
Interest
rate and the number of months or years of payments,
·
And
what will be the total amount that we will actually be paying for this stuff,
·
We
answer the ‘Fools Question’ of
o “How much can we monthly afford to pay”
for our dream of whatever.
And we can’t
blame our children for this, no.
·
Most
of the blame falls back upon my generation.
·
We
want it all.
·
We
are not satisfied.
·
Christian
living and loyalty are gone.
·
Marriages
are until we decided differently.
Just look at the
ads on
·
Television,
·
At the
movies,
·
On
the Radio,
·
Or in
the magazines.
From the viewpoint
of the popular media
·
You
would think that getting more and more material things
·
Is or
should be the most important thing of all within our lives.
And - God and
the Bible
·
Are
somewhere on the sideline,
·
If
we are to even consider them at all.
The Values of
our today have been turned upside down!
Are we not resounding
to God in the same song which was found in our scripture today?
28) They replied, “We want
to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
“Show us a miraculous sign
if you want us to believe in you.
What can you do?
Now, we
shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves.
·
Because
this change has happened so gradually that maybe even a turtle may not have
even notice the change.
·
So
many of us are caught off guard that we don’t even know which way is up.
It is like the
old story of the frog in the kettle.
·
Put
a frog in hot water and he will jump right out,
·
But
put him in cool water and gradually turn up the flame underneath the pan and
the frog will slowly die without noticing what is happening.
Our cultural-path
to death is just like that.
The biblical
correction for this situation
·
Of having
our upside-down values within our lives is found in the:
o
Name of God -- The Great I
AM.
We
so often lose sight of who God Is!
But Do you Remember:
·
The
“I AM” was the name that God used to describe Himself to Moses when Moses first
agreed to go to Egypt and lead the people out of bondage.
"Give me your name
that I might tell the people who sent me," Moses requested.
"Tell them that I AM –
who - I AM - sent you," God replied
(Exodus 3:13-15).
God is the
center of life.
And
He should be the center of Our Lives!
·
When
we put something else in the center of our lives,
o We Do Not work right.
·
God
is The Great I
AM.
·
We
better pay attention to him –
o To how he reveals himself to us
o And of what He is saying.
Now
According to the Gospel of John,
·
Jesus used the name I AM for himself on numerous
occasions.
In
the text before us, he says of himself,
[John 6:35; 6:48 &
6:51]
·
"I am the bread of
life".
[John 8:12] Jesus says,
·
"I am the light of
the world."
[John 10:7] Jesus says of himself,
·
"I am the door of the
sheep".
And
in [John 10:11] he
claims,
·
"I am the good
shepherd."
Other
"I am" sayings said by Jesus in the gospel of John include:
[John 11:25]
·
"I am the resurrection
and the life".
[John 14:6]
·
"I am the way, the truth,
and the life".
[John 15:1]
·
"I am the real
vine".
[John 5:58]
·
"Before Abraham was,
I am".
We
have such a short amount of time
·
Here tonight, it doesn't allow us to
·
Examine each of these "I am" sayings in depth,
·
But I believe it is obvious to us that in the
o
Gospel of John,
·
It was Jesus who identifies Himself as the great I AM
o
Who Moses met in the wilderness.
Jesus
was a Great Teacher,
·
But for those who claim that he
o
Was just a Great Teacher,
o
And not divine,
·
They have to eliminate these I am(s) sayings
from consideration.
I AM = God's Name.
And
it is important for us to understand that
·
Jesus claims that name for himself.
However, Jesus is both - God and man.
Exodus
3:13-15 puts
these words into the mouth of God: "This (I AM) is my
name - forever, and this is my Title for All Generations."
That is the High,
·
The Holy,
o
And The Exalted Name of God
which He uses for Himself.
In
our gospel lesson for today,
·
We hear the claim of Holiness
·
And the connection between the wilderness story of Moses
·
And the preaching of Jesus on the theme of Bread.
Moses
received the manna from heaven.
·
Jesus claimed to be the manna from heaven.
·
Moses told the people that they needed to eat the heavenly manna
God sent to sustain them.
·
Jesus said He is the heavenly manna that sustains us.
Moses
pointed away from himself.
·
Jesus pointed to himself.
·
Jesus is God incarnate!
Incarnated means:
§
Personified, {per-son-a-fied}
§
ALIVE,
§
Embodied,
§
In the Flesh,
§
And Come to LIFE!
You
can't limit him to being
·
Just a Great Religious Leader.
He
was that, but also so-so much more.
·
He was, He is, the Great I AM
o
Who
is the Bread of Life!
Since
Jesus is the great I AM,
·
That means He is in control
·
I am not, and You are not in control!
o
But My and Your sinful tendency is to try to be in control.
·
As it is explained in The Parable of the Ten Minas {mee-nas} as recorded in Luke 19:14.
o
(As a Side Note: Minas {mee-nas} is a unit of weight, and its value is equal to a 16th
part of a talent. Today, one Talent is worth) $1,358,135, so a Minas {mee-nas} today would = $84,883.44.)
o
Within this Parable,
o
In some degree, Are we Not Like the servant who said regarding
the master who went away to be crowned king,
o
"We don't want this
man to rule over us"
We
don't want anyone to rule over us,
·
And it is sad to say,
o
But it is within our sinful-human nature
o
That we don’t even want God, who created us – we don’t want Him to
Rule over us.
That's the BIGGEST Conflict
that describes our World These Days.
The
entire Bible can be outlined around that theme of God's rule over us.
·
In Genesis 1, God creates us in his own image.
o
He commands that the fruit of one
tree is out of bounds.
o
Then in Chapter 2 of Genesis,
§
It tells us that we rebelled against God's authority
§
And we ate from that one forbidden fruit.
Then
we play the famous game of “Passing the Buck”.
·
“Oh – Oh Lord.” "It's her fault. She made me do it."
·
Then Eve responds,
o
"But the snake is responsible."
·
And if the snake was there to speak, I am sure that it would
have said,
o
"Don't blame me O Powerful ONE.
o
You made me that way."
In
other words, not only do we rebel against God's authority,
·
But we are great at making excuses instead of repenting for our OWN
wrong doing.
§
Does that Sound familiar?
·
In our Rebellion and within
o
Our Reasoning, Our Justification,
o
Are We Not driving home the point that
§
We don't want God to rule over us.
The
rest of the Bible
·
From AFTER THE FALL IN Genesis 2
·
ALL Through the last verse in Revelation
·
IT Tells of God working to Restore Us
·
Of Him Rescuing US
·
Back To God's Reign over us.
·
AND God works to restore us in God's way.
·
He doesn’t go about it by forcing us
o
Under his control through His Power and Might,
o
But rather by Him inviting us back.
o
Back to his control for our own good.
That
invitation comes to us because
·
God gave us the option of
o
Saying "Yes" or "No" to him.
We
most-certainly have the Freedom
·
To reject God's offer of accepting us into Christ.
·
But - or maybe - However,
o
In spite of what we have done through our rebellion,
·
If we Repent,
we can come back to him.
Even
While we are still fighting the rule of
·
God over us for our own good,
·
God is at work in us to bring us back into the fold.
·
That's the Classic Battle
o
Which is in our souls
o
Between God and the devil.
God
has accomplished our salvation by Jesus dying on the cross.
·
Inspired and nudged by the Holy Spirit,
o
We are called to accept
o
What God in Christ has accomplished.
·
From the cross Jesus said, "It is finished."
It's
like a gift of a million dollar check being given to us by God's grace.
§
It has been given,
o
But unless we turn it over
o
And then sign it,
o
We don't receive the benefits of that gift.
Some
foolish and stubborn people refuse to sign the check.
o
They refuse to listen to the
§
Great I AM.
o
Instead, they put other things
§
In First Place
§
And thereby commit idolatry
§
Idolatry Against God Himself.
As
we started out this evening,
·
We talked about how many of us
o
Have twisted the Biblical Values around in our heads.
They
value things that are cheap
·
And which loses their value.
BUT
Things like Faith that are so, so precious.
That
is what is happening in our culture.
But In Addition to That, in many churches,
·
We have stressed so hard that the
o
Horizontal Dimension of Christianity
§
(Between Ourselves)
§
(Within ourselves and our Neighbors)
That
we have neglected the value
of the Vertical Dimension
§
(Between God and Ourselves).
Yes,
it is True!
We
do need to:
o
Respect one another,
o
Serve one another,
o
And Love one another.
·
But – We must Remember What Jesus said was the Full Truth: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your
neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27).
The
Full and Whole Truth,
o
Is that we are called to
§
Love the Lord our God above
§
And beyond anything else.
·
But it is the Vertical Dimension which we so often neglected
today.
·
Our Word for today provides us a correction
o
By reminding us that
o
Jesus is the Great I AM
o
And the Bread of Life.
·
The Great I AM is in charge.
·
And we are called to Love our neighbors which is a result of Loving God FIRST.
From
the perspective of the Gospel of John, there are two options in life:
·
Either I am in charge,
·
Or, God, Christ, the I AM
is in charge.
When
we are in-charge, life doesn't work the way it was designed.
When
The I AM is in charge,
·
Life works the way it is supposed to work
·
That is according to God's plans and His Purpose.
When
I am in charge of my life,
·
I consistently mess things up.
·
I make excuses for what I mess up.
·
And I refuse to take Responsibility
o
For what goes wrong.
In
other words, the biggest problem I have in life is that I am self-centered.
Do
you find yourself in the same situation?
The
center of the word "S I N" is I.
·
That's the problem we all have.
We
can't get ourselves out of the center, even when we try hard.
Here is the thing:
No act of the self can
lift the self out of the self because it is the self which is the problem.
In
other words,
·
We get trapped into one idolatry after another
·
When we DO NOT submit to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, the Great I AM.
·
That is where the problem is.
Try to pick up the pencil example.
When
we submit ourselves,
·
We stop trying and we do,
·
And it is Then that we have made
·
The transition from "I am in charge of my life" to "I
·
The Great I AM is in charge of my life."
When
the Great I AM speaks,
·
We should always listen.
·
The Great I AM has already spoken.
·
What He says is called the Word of God.
·
That Word of God is
o
Primarily Jesus Himself.
·
In addition,
o
That Word is the Bible
o
And the Preaching
o
And sharing of the Gospel.
·
Will we listen to the calls of the world
o
Or will we listen to the Word of God
§
And then pass it on?
BUT Here is the thing:
We
will answer one way or another.
To
who will you?
·
Will You Follow the ways of the world
·
Or Will You Follow the ways of the Great I AM.
This decision is entirely up to you.
What is YOUR ANSWER?
