John 6:28-35

John 6:28-35 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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.” “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Not recognizing who Christ was, the people wanted Jesus to give them bread to eat, to offer them food for daily sustenance; yet He was telling them: I am the bread of life, the daily manna for a life lived by faith. He sustains a Christian's life. We who partake of him, Jesus Messiah Lord of All, live eternally--now and forevermore. The Bible says, He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12) He is literal life, our breath, our being, our everything, and because He lives, we live also. As the Gaithers wrote: "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. . ." The crowd wanted Jesus to create a miracle by giving them physical bread, something to momentarily meet their physical need for food. Jesus did that at times as He often does for us, but He focused them on a higher truth, back on himself, on God's perfect salvation plan: He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. This of course did not satiate their desire to have their physical needs met: it did not please their selfish desires to receive a miraculous sign. Christians sometime fall into this trap of wanting Jesus to satisfy our every need that we might really believe in him, truly trust him when He is calling us to live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Oftentimes, we cry out for, "Just one more miracle, Lord, then we will really know you are with us," not understanding that if He never did another miracle on our behalf other than the miracle He has already done by dying on a cruel cross for our sins and lifting us out of the miry clay and setting our feet upon a rock and putting a song of praise in our hearts and establishing our going and winning the victory over death and the grave forever, and saying, "It is finished," HE HAS DONE ENOUGH! HE HAS DONE IT ALL! HE IS OUR EVERYTHING--ALL WE WILL EVER NEED AND MORE! AND HE SENT THE HOLY SPIRIT TO SEE US THROUGH TO THE END! (That is four exclamation marks in a row, and my best writing professor at the UW said every writer should receive a limit of five at birth. Note from Mom) Yet, we do not seek the lost; we do not even see them. We skip the prayer meetings, and we ignore the home groups and the worship and praise meetings. We criticize our pastors and church leaders who pour themselves out week after week because they do not please us. They preach too long or not long enough. We tell Jesus, I need this or that and sulk when we do not get it. We pray, "I want you to perform this miracle or that one, and then I will not ask you for another thing well unless another really big thing comes along." We are kind of like beggars with a sign on the roadside: "Please, please, Jesus: alms for the poor."

As a fleshly man, I (Dad) have pleaded with Jesus for a miracle. Please sell my house. Please give me a job. Please heal me or my wife? Please! Please! And many times He has given me that miracle. But one more miracle is never enough. Soon it is forgotten, and then there I am again on the side of the road begging. Some of you may not be like I am, but some of you may be, and if you are, we need to remember who Christ is and who we are in him. He is Lord of all: He came to save us, to redeem us, to adopt us into his family that we might say Abba Father and rest in our Father's arms, content in his goodness and mercy, knowing we have the grace and favor of our Father, trusting in his loving kindness and tender care. We have the privilege and the responsibility of sharing the good news with a hurting and dying world and the blessing of partaking of the bread of life and drinking living water as we go about doing good in his name. Bless you today dear brothers and sisters.