| |
Bread That Fills
Sunday Worship Sermon
AUGUST 2, 2009 - “Whoever comes to me will never be thirsty and whoever believes in me will never be hungry.”
(John 6: 35)
During four of the five Sundays in August, were going to take a look at the grace of God. We use the word grace in church a lot. The grace of God is like saying the love of God. It’s God’s love taking a particular action in human history and in our individual lives.
Try to fix in your mind the picture of a house. Steps lead up to a porch in front of the house. The first type of grace, or love poured out by God, is the grace that helps us get up the steps onto the porch. It is called Prevenient Grace. Before we ever know about God, God pours out his love to us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit God works in our lives. At some point, different for everyone, we come to understand that we need and want God’s love, that we are incapable of truly living without God’s help. That living alone, that having sin control our lives, isn’t the life we want any longer. Through prevenient grace God turns us toward Himself and away from our life that has not been working. Some people will say, “I feel empty” or they’ll say, “No matter what I do, I feel like I have a hole inside of me that just can’t be filled.” Many times, when people say these words they are expressing a yearning to have Christ in their lives; to give meaning to their lives. Going back to the picture of our house, God’s prevenient grace is the grace that helps a person get up the steps onto the front porch of the house. It is a step of faith.
In that place, on the front porch, a person knows that they want something different but may not understand what it is. This is where God’s Justifying Grace comes into play. Justifying grace is the grace that makes it possible for us to go through the front door of our house. We’re going to look at that two weeks from now and then we’ll look at God’s Sanctifying Grace the last two Sundays of August. God’s sanctifying grace makes it possible for us to enjoy all the rooms in the house of faith in which God desires us to reside.
For now, let’s turn back to prevenient grace – that is what we’re going to focus on today. In John 6: 35 Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me will never be thirsty and whoever believes in me will never be hungry.” Let’s focus on the words “comes to me,” for to have a relationship with Christ a person needs to make a conscious decision to come to Him.
We make decisions “to come” all the time. Families come together for birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. Friends come together because they enjoy one another’s company. Neighbors sometimes have block parties and co-workers get together to deepen relationships. Coming together to be with others requires a conscious decision. We could decide not to come, to do something elseand , to spend our time in another way. Deciding “to come” or “not to come” reflects, over time, what we value.
In John 6: 24-35, Jesus is appealing to his audience to come to him. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,” he says. This is an example of God’s prevenient grace in action, and the timing helps us understand how God was at work in the lives of those listening to Jesus that day.
Jesus had just fed the 5,000. 5,000, by the way, may have only been the men – the size of the crowd was probably larger counting women and children. He had just took the two fish and five loaves and had fed all of them, and there were leftovers. Now, the next day, those who had witnessed this miracle had sought after Jesus. They wanted to see and hear more. Jesus, being Jesus, knows what their thinking. In verses 26-27, he says, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for 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 for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
Whenever Jesus starts with, “Very truly, I tell you…” it’s like he’s saying, “Listen to me, what I am about to say is important.” Then he scolds them. It’s as if he’s saying, “I gave you a sign by feeding the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves; a sign that I am the Son of God.” “But you are so fixated on the miracle; you have failed to see that the miracle was meant to reveal who I am.” Jesus says, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
The verbal exchange continues. The people want to know what they must do. Jesus tells them simply, “believe in him whom God has sent.” In other words, “believe that I, Jesus, am the Son of God.” The people then ask for Jesus to give them a sign. Jesus already had, he fed the 5,000 the day before and they were all there and witnessed this great sign, but they did not understand.
I think this is significant because it is so that we’re tempted to be. We are ever looking for signs of true meaning. Can Michael Phelps win more gold medals at the next Olympics than he won in the last one? Can Lance Armstrong win one more Tour de France? Can Michael Jackson, in death, exceed the fame of Elvis Presley after he died? Is the “cash for clunkers” the miracle for jump starting the auto industry? By the way, a chicken farmer, feeling that the auto industry was getting too much help by the federal government complained this week, “There should be a “cash for cluckers” program to help out chicken farmers who need help along with every other industry just as much as the auto manufacturers.” Is the true measure of a person’s life really based on “the number of toys they have acquired when they die?” Do we reach for people magazine more often than we reach for the bible? Are these the modern day signs we hold on to: that all is going to be ok and that give meaning and stability to our lives?
When we put our trust in these, don’t we run the risk of being pulled away from the greatest sign that humans have ever been given by God: the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And don’t we risk shutting the door on the ways God is trying to enter our lives today and every day to bring us to Him. Prevenient grace is God’s love reaching out to us, wooing us, desperate for a relationship with us because God knows that is good for us. Wanting us to know and feel the joy, comfort, and peace that come with a life lived with Him.
A few years ago, specially designed countertop ovens for baking bread were hot items. Everyone was talking about coming home to the smell of fresh baked bread. That fad seems to have run its course. Those that have always baked their own bread continue to do so while most caught up in the bake-your-own bread craze are on to other things. God provides bread that is not fad-driven; bread that endures through the ages. That bread is Jesus. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus died on the cross for you and me. God raised Jesus from the dead, conquering sin and death so you and I do not need to be enslaved by sin and so you and I have eternal life. Jesus made all this possible, Jesus is the bread that comes from God in heaven, and Jesus is the only bread that truly fills! Amen.
|
|
