Signed, Sealed, and Sent - John 6:25-40

Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast. I will walk by faith and not by sight.

Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to Calvary Chapel Charlotte. John chapter 6 is a long chapter. It is 71 verses. So it's taken us a bit to go through it.

There are two very key and famous passages that show up in all of the Gospels that we've just gone through. The feeding of the 5,000 and then the disciples going into the ship to cross the Sea of Galilee in the storm and Jesus walking on the water.

So we looked at those and we saw how the Lord is setting the people up for this teaching he's going to give to these groups of people as we finish out this chapter on him being the bread of life.

Him being the source, the resource of sustenance for life. When he fed them on the hillside there, the 5,000. Last week we looked at storms and we saw how life in a storm, it doesn't last forever.

Praise God. It will not last forever. Even if it lasts a lifetime, it will not last forever. And life in a storm, it gives us a very unique opportunity to do what?

To draw near to Jesus and to be looking for Jesus in a way we might not if we were not in that storm. In Luke 21, verse 28, Jesus speaking of a storm that will come upon this earth, a storm of great trial and trouble and tribulation, Jacob's trouble, the day of the Lord in which the church will not be here.

He will reclaim his bride and it will be a day of great trouble. And for those at that time who are believers, he will say, hey, when you begin to see these things come to pass, what things? The things that he's just described before this in Luke 21, the abomination of desolation and all these different things.

He says, lift up your heads, look up, your redemption draws nigh. That principle exists though for all of us. When you see these things begin to come to pass, how much more those of us are seeing things come to pass in the world, the trouble and the storms that are in the world leading to a day when there will be one who will stand in the place in a sense of Christ and say, hey, follow me world.

How much more than for us when we see these things begin to come to pass, should we not then look up, lift up our heads? Our redemption draws near. And I think storms allow us to recalibrate and realize, oh, that's right.

This world's not my home. Our comfort is not just Jesus coming to us, but us going to Jesus. That's our ultimate comfort.

Our ultimate place of rest is to be with him. Excuse me. And as we look at the scripture today, we're going to carry that theme through where Jesus is going to draw these groups of people out.

He's going to bring their understanding of him into a deeper place. And he's going to reveal to them the things of their own heart, which is, man, you can't just find satisfaction in this life. It's not enough.

Even if Jesus is the one satisfying you in this life, it's not enough just to be satisfied, to be fulfilled in this life. We're going to see three words that Jesus will use about himself in the beginning section of this scripture we're going to get through.

We're hoping to get through verse 40 today. Jesus will say that he comes from the father, signed, sealed, and sent. So why do we study the Bible?

We study the Bible to determine what it says. Because the Bible says exactly what it means. The Bible says what it means. The word of God shapes our doctrine.

Our doctrine does not shape the word. We do not go into the Bible with a preconceived doctrinal platform. I don't bring that to the Bible. We go into the blank slate. So I study the Bible not to find out, well, what does the Bible mean?

No, I want to know what it says. Because the Bible will say what it means. If I approach it with, well, I want to find out, you know, this meaning, I can easily leave myself astray approaching the Bible, bringing something to it, and not letting the Bible speak to me.

We look at the word of God and accept it according to what it says, not according to what we believe. We do not accept God's word based on what we believe about it, about life, about God, about circumstances, about whatever.

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Make your request known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Do you believe that? I don't know. When I'm really anxious, I don't know if I believe that. It doesn't matter. It's what it says. So I base my understanding of God's word, and then what I believe based on what it says.

All right, Lord, your word says be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, make my request be known to God. All right, I'm going to do that. I'm going to trust that you are going to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus, because right now, I don't know.

I feel really, really anxious. But hey, that's what God's word says. I don't bring my feelings to it. I don't bring what I think or believe. We do not look to any man then to interpret the Bible for us, but to simply help us understand what it already says.

You're not here to hear my interpretation. I'm not here to give you an interpretation. The process that I go through to study the word and to then come and teach is finding out what it says.

It's a week-long process of what does this say? In Jesus' words, they're deep, but simple. It's like, man, what, Lord? I know what you're saying, and I'm not trying to bring an interpretation to it.

I want to understand what it says, so then I can know what you mean. And that will guard us from a lot of things. You see, any time you hear a man or a person try to interpret the Bible for you, and there are many doctrines out there.

There are many theological systems that will interpret God's word for you. It will say, well, this word doesn't mean this actually. Apply this definition. Well, it doesn't really mean that.

There are interpretations and beliefs about the Bible, all kinds of them, regarding salvation, regarding predestination, regarding the church, regarding Israel, regarding Jesus' return.

There's all kinds of interpretations by good, well-meaning people who love Jesus and are very smart and much smarter than me. But I don't want to know how some man interprets the Bible.

I want to understand what it says already. In Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah has been sent back to Jerusalem, or he goes back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls.

The book before that, Ezra goes to rebuild the temple. The captivity of Israel and Babylon has come to an end, and Nehemiah then goes back to build the walls. In chapter 8, they're built, and they're all excited.

The people are excited. Despite the opposition of the enemy, the walls have been built. And in chapter 8, verse 1, it says, And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate.

And they spake unto Ezra the scribe and said, Bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded, to Israel. And he read therein, before the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday.

He washed them in the water of the word, before the water gate. He did that before the men and the women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

And it tells us there was a group of Levites there. I list their names, and I'm not going to read them all. And the Levites, they caused the people to understand the law. And the people stood in their place.

So they read in the book and the law of God distinctly. It means they gave it clarity. They brought clarity. And gave the sense. They gave insight. And caused them to understand, to discern, and to perceive the reading.

As we approach God's word, as we study through God's word together, that's all we're doing. We're not trying to bring our interpretation or ideas. We're not trying to fit God's word to fit my theological system.

I want to bring God's word and say, hey, this is what Jesus is saying. He's going to go through quite a conversation and quite a discussion with a group of people here. Let's bring some clarity to it.

So nobody's confused here. Let's see what insights there are that the Holy Spirit will give us. And let's discern and perceive what we're reading. And I say all that because as we go through Jesus' words and as he speaks to us through the word and as the Holy Spirit brings interpretation and understanding based on what the Bible says, we all want to be able to walk away from it and go, that was what it said.

Now, I have to decide what I'm going to do with that. It's not, well, that pastor said this. And, you know, I heard a different one say something else. So I'm just going to try and figure out which one I like better, which fits my kind of, no, we want the Bible to shape our lives.

But to do that, I have to then be willing to come to the Bible not trying to shape it. I have to let it shape me. So as we jump into John 6 here, trying to see, okay, Lord, what is it that you are saying?

I put together a little outline for us for the rest of John 6. And primarily, if you look at that right-hand column, verses 30 through 71, we're hopefully going to get through verse 40 today.

Jesus is, like I said, setting the people up for this discussion on him being the bread of life. And he's going to talk to three different groups who are going to question him on this.

And then he's going to end by talking to his own apostles, the 12. So the first group he's going to talk to are the people, just the common people, the ones who are seeking him for bread. In verses 30 through 40, they will question his ability.

Are you able to be what you say you are as the bread of life? Jesus is going to answer with his adequacy to fulfill all of that. And I put a lot of A words in here to help you kind of hopefully, like, remember these things.

It helps me. Verses 41 through 58, then the Jewish leaders will question him. After he's questioned by the people, are you able? He says, I'm adequate.

The Jewish leaders then question. Whenever you see the Jews in capital, it's the religious leaders or the leaders of Israel at the time, which would have been religious, like the scribes and Pharisees.

They question his authenticity. Are you really who you say you are? Jesus answers them with authority, the authority that he possesses. He says, here's my authority. The disciples, this is not the 12.

This is the group of disciples that will be following Jesus. There's one point in one of the gospels where he sends out the 70 to go out and preach the gospel of the kingdom. So there's a lot of other disciples that hung out with Jesus. I mean, are you going to give up and not follow Jesus just because you're not as close as the next guy on the inner circle or whatever?

It's like, no, you just want to be with Jesus. The disciples of Jesus, they question him about his acceptability. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Lord. This is a little much what you're saying here.

We have to consume you. We have to partake of your body to be part of you. I don't know if this is acceptable. Jesus answers them with accountability. He says, hey, this is who I'm accountable to.

Who are you accountable to? And lastly, as we will end the chapter, hopefully next week, beautifully, Jesus then will question the 12. He'll question, what is your aim in all of this?

Why are you following me? And Peter answers with great assurance, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Where else would we go, Lord? You have the words of life. But if we look at that left-hand column, it's where we are today.

But Jesus has just come across the Sea of Galilee after walking across the water through the storm. The people then, they're seeking Jesus for an allowance. Hey, give us our daily bread, right?

Don't you want to do that? Give us our allowance. Meet our needs. Fill my belly. Jesus is going to answer them by telling them how they might acquire life. He says, you just want to be filled up so you're not hungry, so you don't have need.

What you really need is life. The people then will question how they might gain God's acclaim. Hey, how can we then do that? How can we validate ourselves before God so that we might receive all of this?

Jesus will answer that acclaim is achieved by faith. And then that will lead into them questioning his ability and him speaking of his adequacy. So this is how I have to break it down when I get to this section where it's, you know, a lot of Jesus' words in this conversation.

It's like, who's talking? Why are they talking? What are they saying? And what are we getting at here? And Jesus has set them up beautifully with this whole thing where he's fed them with bread.

And now he's going to lead them deeper. We saw that with Nicodemus. We saw that with the woman at the well. We saw that with the man whose son was sick. As they come on the surface level and Jesus says, yes, but.

Yes, I got that. But let's go a little deeper here. So let's jump into verse 25. We read this last week. This is where we ended. And when they had found him, the people on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, when did you come here?

How did you get here? The people ask, Jesus, how'd you get here? Where did they find Jesus? Was he just hanging out on the seaside, you know, catching the rays? Was he walking through Capernaum?

We actually don't find that out until verse 59. So if you turn your Bibles and jump down all the way to verse 59, what does it say there? These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

Jesus comes across the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. And they, at this point, enter in the synagogue and he starts teaching. The people finally find him there. And this is where they're asking him these questions or these conversations are happening.

Probably not the Sabbath. There were other days of the week they would gather to have reading at the synagogue. Probably not the Sabbath because I don't think they'd be sailing across the Sea of Galilee. The people would be at that time.

But anyway, where was Jesus? Where did they find him? They found him where the people gathered to hear God's word. They found Jesus with people who wanted to understand God's word. They found Jesus among people who took time for God's word.

Guys, why are we here? We're here to find Jesus. Where are we going to find him? Well, my guess is you should look for him among people gathered to hear God's word. Maybe you should look for him with people who want to understand God's word.

Jesus said, where two or more are gathered, there am I in the midst. Jesus is with the people who take time for God's word. I have yet to meet someone in my short life of 44 years.

I have yet to meet someone who's a mature, well-grounded, on fire, follower of Jesus, who's not in his word and with his people. I haven't met him yet.

I have met people who think they are. Oh, yeah, I'm doing great. It's like, man, you are not doing great. These were people who had been fed by Jesus. These are people who had followed Jesus.

These are people who have found Jesus. Those are good things. And yet they did so for all the wrong reasons. They wanted Jesus to feed them. They wanted to follow Jesus. They had found him.

But why? What was the reason? They just wanted them to fill their bellies. They just wanted to meet my need today, satisfy me. But the problem is when Jesus simply becomes a means for our temporary fulfillment, our fulfillment will be temporary.

Is Jesus able to meet my temporary needs and fulfill them? He absolutely is. But when he simply just becomes that, he's just a source for me to be fulfilled in my temporary needs, well, the problem is that fulfillment is going to be pretty temporary.

Oh, Lord, that was amazing, that miracle you did. Thank you, Jesus. You fed 5,000 of us. Well, now we're hungry and it's the next day. Now what are you going to do? I'm hungry again. That amazing miracle, that amazing experience I had in my life where Jesus supplied that need, but now I'm hungry again.

So they come looking for Jesus. He said, how did you get here? Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles.

That word miracle is signs. You seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.

Jesus is answering the people who are seeking him by telling them it's not so much where he is. He knows where he's at. Lord, how'd you get here? He's telling them, hey, let me tell you where you need to be.

Let me tell you where you need to be at. He does not answer just to satisfy their curiosity. It's not like, oh, Lord, how'd you get here? Well, let me tell you how this happened. That's not the point.

When Jesus is answering these questions, he wants to satisfy their soul. He wants them to find satisfaction, not just in temporary things or not just in being curious about Jesus, but he wants them to find satisfaction in their soul.

So it's funny, instead of telling them how he arrived there, because he doesn't. Hey, how'd you get here? How did you get here? Jesus, it's good to see you. I'm so glad you're here in the synagogue. Welcome. You know, I imagine, I wouldn't do this, but imagine you walk in, you're like, hi, nice, nice to meet you, Pastor.

You seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat loaves and were filled. Whoa, you know, like, oh, hey, hi there. Instead of telling them, though, what they wanted to hear, he told them what they needed to hear.

Jesus gets deeper with his questions than we are comfortable many times going with each other or with ourselves. Miracles is signs. What signs? When he says you saw the signs, but you wouldn't believe them.

You're not here because of the signs. Well, if you remember in John chapter 3, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, in verse 2, he says, Rabbi, teacher, we know you are a teacher from God, for no man can do these miracles, these signs that you do, except you be with God.

Jesus has been doing these signs all throughout his ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem. And they point to what? This guy's got to be of God. Nobody else can do this. Jesus was the source of all these things, wasn't he?

Jesus is both the source of signs and snacks. He covers both of them. But to seek him simply for his ability to provide is to miss what the provision points to.

Does he provide our needs? He sure does. I'm so thankful he provides my needs. But if I'm only seeking him because of what he provides, I'm missing the whole point. What's the provision pointing to? In Psalm 81, the psalmist is rehearsing some of Israel's history.

And the Lord speaks here in Psalm 81 and says, I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would have none of me.

Was it they didn't want to be fed? Was it they didn't want to have their needs met? That wasn't the point. They wouldn't listen to his word. They wouldn't have anything to do with him. He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat.

And with honey out of the rock, should I have satisfied you? He would have. But what is the problem? They wouldn't hearken to his voice, to his word. You see, the people are seeking the effect of a relationship with Jesus, but they're not seeking the cause.

Jesus, whatever, just meet my needs. Jesus now says in verse 27, continuing this train of thought, he says, labor not for the meat which perishes.

Good old King James. I read out of the King James. Labor just means to work, occupy, or have business. Hey, do not occupy yourself. Do not spend all your time working and making your business about doing what?

The food, that which sustains. Don't seek to occupy yourself with what will sustain you. Because the thing that we seek to sustain us doesn't last.

It vanishes. It's lost. It's destroyed. It's rendered useless. But contrary to that, do what? Occupy ourselves with seeking that which sustains unto everlasting life.

Which the Son of Man will give you. For him has the Father sealed. How much of our time, how much of our life is spent in being occupied with things that must first be consumed to receive their benefit?

And then once consumed, they're rendered useless. How many batteries do you guys go through? How much food do we eat? We put all this time into it, and it's good, it's great. But you consume it, we receive its benefit, and then it's rendered useless.

We even call them consumables in our world. Jesus is not denying that he is the source of sustaining our temporal needs. He's simply stating he's the source of something so much more.

Something that endures. To endure means to remain, to abide. Does not perish. Does not diminish with use. Jesus is saying, hey, occupy yourself with gaining that which will sustain you, that every time you use it, it won't diminish.

It'll continue to sustain you. As you consume it, it sustains. It doesn't diminish. Instead of laboring for that which cannot last, he's telling them they can freely receive that which will never perish, will never be consumed.

And then he says at the end here, for him has God the Father sealed. Sealed is to stamp. Put a stamp on it. It's a stamp of authenticity. It's like what you would seal your, the wax, like the seal in a wax with.

So the people saw the signs, but they only saw them as a path to a free meal. At most, it was a temporary fix to a need that will never ultimately be satisfied.

Jesus is saying he is the eternal solution to a need that can be permanently satisfied. 1 John 2.2 says he is the propitiation, literally the satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus alone satisfies a need that is eternal. Why did the people then, as we asked ourselves these questions here, why did the people miss the obvious signs of Jesus' purpose, of his person, of his promise?

Why did they miss it? Kind of seems obvious. This guy's got to be something who's healing people, casting out demons, providing all this food, because their interest in Jesus did not go beyond the things that pertain to this life.

My interest in Jesus was about what can he do for me in this life. They missed him. They missed his purpose. They missed his promise. They missed the person of who he was, because they thought that, well, it's just for this life.

You know what? Jesus just makes me a good person. Jesus is, I go to church, and I'm a good person. You know, I don't do bad things because of Jesus. You know, I watch things about Jesus on TikTok.

So, you know, Jesus is not our hope for this life. Do you know that? Jesus is not your hope for this life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 19, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, praise God, we're so blessed.

Wrong. We are of all men most miserable. How miserable to be presented with something that is supposed to be for eternity, and to find out we only have hope in this life.

Jesus is not our hope for this life. But he is our hope while we are in this life. Our hope is not a better life. As we keep reading Corinthians, our hope is a brand new life.

But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, and afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

Paul says, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're most miserable. But it's not in this life only. He is coming, and he the first fruits. In other words, the early harvest.

How is Jesus harvested? Sended to the Father. Then we also, at his coming, will be harvested, in a sense, to the Father. Titus tells us in Titus 2, 11 through 13, that for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Okay, well Jesus then is for this world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

You see, when we lose sight of our eternal hope, we begin then to focus too much on our earthly home. When I lose sight of my eternal hope, I'll focus too intently on my earthly home.

I'll focus too much on how can Jesus satisfy me here? How can I in this life have hope? That's not my blessed hope. Yes, while I'm in this life, I'm to live a life that's godly and denies worldly desires and live soberly and righteously in this present world.

Why? Because I have a hope of one to come. In Mark, well, all the synoptic gospels, we have the parable of the sower, right?

The sower went out to sow and we find out that as Jesus interprets that parable, the seed is what? The word of God. The seed is the word. And the soil is the heart. And there is one heart that's likened to soil that is full of weeds.

It says that the seed springs up quickly and then the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things, the lusts of other things. And you match that up with Titus where we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

The cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches and desires of other things entering in, they choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. It becomes something that no longer is producing fruit in this life.

Well, I need to double down then and figure out how I can be more effective in this life. No, that's not going to work. You're just going to choke yourself. What you need to do is you need to look up because your dream to redemption draws near.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is giving a parable of a master of a house who's gone away and he's left his servants to tend his house. And he has one who's in charge and he uses this servant to tell us that that evil servant said in his heart, my Lord delays his coming.

He lost sight. He was not ready. He lost sight of purpose. My Lord delays his coming and he began to smite his fellow servants.

He lacked readiness and he fought instead of fed and to eat and drink with the drunken. He sought fulfillment instead of faithfulness.

His eyes turned to his own fulfillment because he lacked what? A readiness. Because he lacked a perspective that saw Jesus as more than just something for this life. You see, focusing too intently upon our temporary residence will result in a loss of readiness.

Now that is unfortunately, as we talked about in the beginning, that is an interpretation that is often put upon the word. That hey, God wants us to be focused upon our life here.

We're to change the world for Jesus. You know, the Bible doesn't say we're to change the world for Jesus. We're to go make disciples of Jesus. And a disciple of Jesus looks to Jesus, expects Jesus, and hopes in Jesus.

He's with God's people, about God's people, in God's word, reads God's word, and studies God's word. We're not going to change the world. In fact, Jesus said the opposite. He said, in the world, you're going to have tribulation.

But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Focusing too intently upon our temporary residency will result in a loss of readiness. And so Jesus tells them, do not occupy all of your time and business and work with seeking something that will perish.

We can do that even as believers, guys. We can spend our time with the Lord and our time in ministry and our time serving him to be all about, Lord, what are you going to do here for me?

What are you going to do that can, I'll use it to glorify you. And not that Jesus is not involved with all of that. But when we lose sight of the purpose and the one who's behind that, then we get like this evil servant or like the seed that gets choked out.

And so they answer him now in verse 28. They're going to ask how they can do God's work then. How can we do this so that we can gain God's goods? Okay. What shall we do that we might work the works of God?

You see, what they have not grasped that it's not about what they do, but it's about who they are. They still think there's something they have to do. In John 14, 11, Jesus says, Believe me, speaking to his disciples, that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the very works sake.

You see, the works of God can only be done by those that are of God. Nobody else is going to do the works of God. And they're saying, okay, well, how can we do the works of God? Jesus is going to answer and say, you got to believe.

You must first be born of God before you can do the works of God. Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him who he has sent.

All right. The people ask, how do we gain God's goods? How can we do God's work? And Jesus answers, God's work needs to be done in them, not by them.

You cannot work the work of God until you first allow God to do a work in you. The only way to partake in the work of God is to first be a partaker of the God of the work.

If we don't partake in God, then we are not able to be those who can receive entrance into his work. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we read, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

In verse 8, the object of that verse, the subject, is for by grace are you saved. How are you saved by grace? Through faith. Who's it of? Not yourself. How do you obtain it?

As a gift from God. Verse 9 then qualifies that it is not of works, lest any man should boast. To enter into God's work, we have to allow God to do a work in us.

We don't do that by any effort or by any work. We do that by believing, by receiving. Faith is not a work. Faith is not something that we labor for and work for and God says, good job, that's earned you.

No, faith is just something that we exercise in saying, God, I receive. I believe you that you will give this. And so we see our three words here in verse 26.

We see signed the miracles, the signs in verse 27, sealed, him who the father sealed. And here in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe on him who he has sent.

We obtain from God when we accept what has been signed, sealed, and sent by God. That's how we enter into God's work. And now is where after Jesus points this out to the people, you're seeking me simply to fulfill your bellies.

You're not seeking me because you believe. Now begins this dissertation where they will question him and then we will step through all these other groups questioning him. They're like, okay, do you have this ability, Jesus?

You're claiming it. They said, therefore, unto him, what sign do you show us then? Like, seriously, guys? They're feeding the 5,000.

They're like, zapping himself across the Sea of Galilee to the other side without a ship. The healing of the people that are sick. The casting out of demons. What sign do you show us then that we may see and believe what you do, what work you do?

The people ask for a sign of what? Satisfy me. Satisfaction. Give me a sign that will satisfy my need for whatever. I won't believe until, Lord, if you would just do this, that would be enough.

I'll never ask you for anything again. I will believe then. But they rejected the signs of sending and sealing. He said, do you not know the one who sealed me? Do you not, can you tell by the works the one who sent me?

They're essentially saying, Jesus, produce some proof. No amount of evidence will ever be enough for an unbelieving heart. it will never be enough.

You can stack up all of the evidence. Remember when Jesus tells the true account of the rich man who died and went to hell and Lazarus who died and went to, they both went to Hades, but one was in Abraham's bosom and the other in a place of torment, the rich man.

And he said, Father Abraham, send Lazarus back. Send him to my brothers. Send him to my family. That they won't be here. That they won't come either. And what does Abraham answer?

He said, even if one rose from the dead, they will not believe. Pretty foreshadowing. Jesus who rose from the dead, what other evidence do you need? But no amount of evidence will ever be enough for an unbelieving heart.

There's always one more sign. Be careful. The enemy loves to use this in our own lives, our own walks, and our own hearts. Always put one more thing in front of us.

We just do this one more thing and God will be satisfied. Do this one more thing and you'll feel better. Do this one more thing and it will be enough. But Jesus says, it is finished.

It's all done. Do not be surprised then in your own life when your changed life, your believing heart, and your living faith is not enough to convince someone that you are a partaker of the work of God.

Tell someone, come, enter the work of God. Come be part of this work that God does in a heart and in a life. Let me tell you about my changed life, my believing heart, and my living faith. And they say, no, that's not enough.

Show me a sign. But see, an unbelieving heart, it will never have enough proof. A faith that seeks for signs, a faith that seeks for signs to sustain it is a faith that cannot be sustained for long because it will never be enough.

You'll have to have another one and another one and another one. And now they say, this is the sign we'd like you to give us, Jesus. Verse 31, our fathers did eat manna in the desert. Every day they had food.

We don't have to work anymore. This would be great. As it is written, ooh, now they're saying, well, the Bible says, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And it does.

Psalm 105, verse 40 says, the people asked, just asked, and he brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. But you remember all the circumstances surrounding these miraculous supply that God gave?

They grumbled and complained and can God spread a table in the wilderness? And he sent them quail so much that they stuffed themselves until they were sick and then a plague broke out among them.

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Remember what Jesus had said to the Pharisees after he had, healed the man that was lame?

He says, for had you believed Moses, you would have believed me for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how should you believe my words? The people want to know if Jesus has a greater ability than Moses.

Hey, Moses did this for our fathers in the wilderness. If you're the Messiah, if you're the chosen one, you should be able to do more than that. under the law, God sustained the people with a temporary source of satisfaction and a temporary source of fulfillment.

And yet, Moses proved his ability as one who does God's work by supplying them with bread for 40 years. But he also showed that at the end of those 40 years, they still died.

They still died. Jesus will show he is more than adequate to meet their needs, not by giving them bread for 40 years, not by just sustaining them for a lifetime, but then at the end, you still die before eternity.

And Jesus said unto them, truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. They attributed it to Moses. But my father gives you the true bread from heaven. Jesus answers that the true source of satisfaction is not of this world.

But remarkably, God will send it to the people in this world. Moses was not the source, was he? He was simply the one who spoke on behalf of the source. Moses was not the word, but he spoke the word.

Moses was not the source, but he pointed to the source. Jesus says in verse 33, for the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world.

Jesus declares that God's true source of sustenance is not a man who just speaks the word, but one who is the word. He does not just point to supply, he says he is the supply.

Jesus is more than adequate to sustain not only God's people Israel, but he says here the entire world. He gives life unto the world. They want what?

Bread. What's Jesus offering? Life. As the sustainer of life, Jesus says he must be God. He must be willingly given.

He comes down from heaven. No one is going to strong arm God to send someone from heaven. He willingly came and offered himself. As the sustainer of life, he must be God. He must be willingly given and he must be more than adequate to meet our deepest need.

And what is our deepest need? Life. We need life. No amount of need that God can satisfy for us in this life will do us any good. We are among most, all men most miserable.

If that does not end in eternal life. Then said they unto the Lord, and then they said unto him, Lord, evermore, give us this bread.

Romans 5, 17 says, for if by one man's offense, death reigned by one, by Adam, much more, they which receive abundance of grace, more than adequate, and of the gift of righteousness.

works, it's a gift, not works. They shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Jesus is superior than Moses. And they say, Lord, evermore, give us this bread.

The people have received Jesus' words, but they still can't see past their own need. They're still fixated on their own need. And yet, what do we see here? Look where their phrasing has changed.

Look what they're calling him. Just like the woman at the well, their understanding of Jesus is growing. The more time they spend with Jesus, the longer they hear his word, the greater their understanding. He was, Rabbi, teacher, how did you get here?

And now he is, Lord. Lord, oh, I'm going to butcher this, Kyrios, something like that in the Greek. in John 4, 15, the woman at the well said unto him, Sir, that's the same word, Lord, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come here to draw.

Jesus, who was simply at one point a great man, he is now Lord. Lord means master. It means the one to whom another belongs. Lord, Lord, we recognize that.

We belong to you. Evermore, give us this bread. The woman at the well asked for living water. The people in Capernaum in the village of comfort have asked for living bread, for the bread of life.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. This is Jesus' first of his seven I am statements. And this one is regarding the bread of life. And we see that in these verses in this chapter.

I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger. And he that believes on me shall never thirst. Beautiful how he's putting that together as he's building, John's building his narrative of Jesus' life so that we might believe and understand the woman at the well and now the people with the bread.

Jesus responds by putting desire, fulfillment, and satisfaction in their proper places. I want you to be desired. I want your desires to be fulfilled. I want you to be satisfied. But he wants it to be so in a way that's enduring, that's lasting, that gives us life.

Life means absolute fullness of life that is only found in God. Absolute fullness of life that is only found in God. John 1, 4, in him was life and the life was the light of men.

You see, for the one that is willing to leave all other sources of life behind and go to Jesus as his source of life, he'll never hunger for another source of life. The one who gives credit to the signs, the seal, and the sending of Jesus will never thirst for any other source of fulfillment.

What does that mean, though? I'm going to have to leave the other ones. As the woman left her pot, as the people would stop seeking for their own fulfillment and recognize, okay, I need Jesus to give me a supply that is a never-ending source.

But I said unto you, Jesus in verse 36 says, But I said unto you that you also see me and believe not. Now, down in verse 40, Jesus will say to them, And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which sees the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life.

But here he is stating to them the fact that you have seen me but you don't yet believe. You're getting there, guys. You see, it's not enough to see bread. It's not enough to acknowledge bread.

It's not enough to desire bread. You can have a beautiful loaf of bread. Maybe you put it on your shelf. Maybe every once in a while you sniff it. Oh, it's amazing.

Maybe it's your friend's bread. It's his house. Man, that's some really nice bread you got there. Yes, it is. Do you want a slice? No, I'm just not really interested in partaking. I'm just noticing that's good for you.

I can see eating bread as a good thing for you. But, you know, I'm just doing my own thing over here with my macaroni and cheese. It's not enough to see bread. Well, maybe you do get the bread and you take it and you bring it into your house.

You put it on your mantelpiece. Maybe you sleep with it next to your pillow, right? You roll over the night, sniff the bread, you rub the bread, you talk to the bread. bread. But bread must be personally received internally to have an effect.

The bread of life, it must be supplied by another. You're not going to make that loaf, no matter how hard you try. It must be personally received. It can't just be someone else who's eating bread and you're watching.

And it must be internally applied. That loaf of bread does you no good until it is internally applied by you partaking of it. Jesus says, I can see that you've seen, but you do not yet believe.

You're not yet partaking. Is Jesus seeking to discourage them? Not at all. But he's pointing out to them that their need is a spiritual need that can only be received spiritually.

In other words, life from heaven must by definition be heavenly. It's out of this world. It's otherworldly. Our needs, even our temporal and physical needs, when Jesus supplies them, I think we have this idea that like, well, Jesus is my supply.

I shouldn't have pain. I should have healing. I shouldn't have discouragement. I shouldn't have trouble. And Lord, where's your supply? He says, I got everything you need. But it's a spiritual supply.

Jesus says in verse 37, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. And him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. It's a strange verse just to kind of stick in here in the middle of all this. I mean, you could just jump right into verse 38 from 36.

You know, you've seen me and believe not. Verse 38, I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the Father which sent me. Why does he put this in here? All that the Father gives me shall come to me. Him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out.

Who are the ones given by the Father? Those that partake of heavenly bread. Whoever partakes of heavenly bread, are the ones the Father gives. He says, hey, the only way to obtain bread, the bread of life, is to come and receive it from Jesus.

To partake of the bread of life is to partake of Christ's life by faith. Who comes to me? Jesus says. Who is it who will come to me? Well, only the ones who will partake.

And only the ones who partake are the ones who the Father gives me. And those, I will in no wise cast out. Why would he say that? Why are they concerned that after having partaken of this heavenly bread, they might be cast out?

Have you been afraid of being cast out? You ever thought, well, Lord, I know your grace is sufficient. But do you know what I just did? Hebrews 3.17 tells us, but with whom was he grieved forty years?

Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? Carcasses. Empty, dead, rotting husk. Worthless. No longer can do anything.

That carcass was sustained for forty years by bread of heaven. And what happened at the end? After all of that, they were cast out. They were expelled.

It means to send out. It means to banish from a family. Moses, under the law, fed the people with bread from heaven for forty years. And after forty years, that bread had no power.

To sustain them through death or bring them into promise. After forty years of being sustained by the bread of heaven, it could not keep them from death and it could not bring them into promise.

And so they have to wonder if we receive this bread from Jesus. If I throw in with Jesus and I'm ostracized from the rest of my family, I'm cast out, I'm banished, I'm no longer allowed to be accepted because now I'm a Jesus follower, what's going to happen to me at the end?

Forty years are partaking of this. Jesus is telling people, they're telling the people that the life he supplies is not only adequate for life, it's adequate in death.

Those who come to Jesus to partake of his heavenly life will find that not even death can cast them away from that life. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see, this is a group of people who have lived under a system that told them that, well, God's kind of out to get us unless we do everything just right. They had taken the law which was to point to grace, which was to point to a need for life, to acknowledge my sin but point to my need for life, for a redeemer.

And they turned it into a system of works, of proving if I'm good enough, and if I'm not, I'm cast out. Sorry, you can't be part of this. Jesus says, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me and this is the Father's will which has sent me.

The all which he has given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. This desire for men to partake of life, it originates with the Father.

It originates with one that to this point I think these people more often than not they attributed law, separation, and death. God's out to get us. God's not happy with me. I'm separated from God.

I have to obey his law and I've broken his law and now I'm going to be punished. And Jesus is saying this isn't something I've just made up of myself, guys. I'm not just bringing my understanding to God.

I'm not just bringing my definition. I'm not just bringing something new. I'm aligning myself with the Father, with his word, and with his will. God's will is for man to partake of a life that overcomes death.

So Jesus was then sent to show us that the Father has not instituted death with the law but simply to point to life. Romans 7, what shall we say then?

Is the law sin? God forbid. I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law said you shall not covet. And the commandment which was ordained to life, the law is good, the law is not sin, the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be to death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, using the thing that is good, deceived me and slew me. I said, well you can do this.

And then I couldn't. I said, ah, you're condemned. You see, God's heart though has always been for life. The problem is in my sin I choose death. Jesus is coming as one who's not only promising life but he's promising an overcoming life.

A life that's greater than Moses, a life that's greater than the law, a life that will not just sustain us for this lifetime but will pass through death, overcome death and will endure for eternity. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which sees the son and believes on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.

Verse 40 is the culmination of Jesus' response to his statement in verse 36 which was, you know, I said unto you, you have also seen and not believe.

Verse 40 now culminates with everyone which sees and believes has everlasting life. Well, how might we work the work of God? This is the work of God that you believe.

those who accept that the Father has signed, sealed, and sent the Son, they partake of a heavenly life, a heavenly resurrection, and a heavenly reign.

What is God's will for you this morning? God's will is for you to be fed, for you to be full, not with a temporary fulfillment that is only found in this life, that doesn't last beyond this life, but with an eternal fulfillment that comes from heaven.

Do you see Jesus' ability this morning? I see that he is able, I can see it, but I struggle to accept that he's adequate. I know he's able, I can see it, but I am struggling to accept that he is adequate in this situation because the pain has endured, because the healing has not come, because the relationship isn't restored, because I still feel like I'm barely scraping by.

And he's supposed to meet my needs. You see Jesus' ability, but do you struggle to accept his adequacy? That he can heal, he can provide, he can restore.

What it comes down to is will we accept that the spiritual resources he gives, because that's what he gives us, he gives us life to sustain us in our hurting, in our loss, in our sorrow, in our need.

will we accept that the spiritual resources he gives are adequate to sustain us, even in times of physical and temporal need? Or do I have to have that physical and temporal need fulfilled before I will believe Jesus?

I see it, but I'm not going to believe it until that's fulfilled. Do I recognize that the resources Jesus gives, they're not here in my pockets, they're here in my heart.

The resources he gives to sustain us in this world are spiritual resources. Jesus sustains with a life that is not of this earth, but it is 100% adequate for all of us who live in this earth.

God's will for you is to be fed, to be filled, and to be fathered. Jesus says, I have not come to do my own will.

This isn't my idea. This comes from your father. David would say in Psalms 37, 25, I have been young and now I'm old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Matthew 6, 11, Jesus says that we are to pray, give us this day our daily bread. You don't have to beg for the bread of life. All you have to do is ask.

He will give you every day what you need to sustain you. It may not be 5,000 loaves on a hillside. It may not.

It may be a comforting word. It may be the peace that passes all understanding. It may be an assurance that you are accepted in the beloved.

It may be that he welcomes you into his work of suffering, service. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, Moses is rehearsing to the people their history on behalf of the Lord.

And he says, he humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna. God, you did that? My need is because you did that? You allowed that?

You were behind that? I thought that was Satan. He humbled you. He allowed you to hunger. He brought you to this extremity so that he might feed you with manna, which you knew not.

Neither did your fathers know. For what purpose? That he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.

Why do I have this need in my life, God? Why are you not satisfying and fulfilling the needs of my life, my temporary existence, the things that you say you care about that not one sparrow falls to the ground and your father knows?

He says, well, because I have a greater purpose. I want you to see past the need and to the one who supplies the need. I want you to see past the one who supplies, I mean, see past the resources and see the one who's responsible for the resources.

I want you to know that your life does not consist in the things of this world, no matter how many or how few you have. We study the Bible, guys, to determine what it says because it says exactly what it means.

The word of God declares that the son's ability is adequate. It's adequate to meet all of our needs and it meets them with a spiritual sustenance.

A quote here by Amy Carmichael. She was a little Irish woman who went to India and never came back to serve the Lord.

The later stages of her life, I'm not sure how many years, 10, 15 years, she was in bed in pain. She fell in a pit and never recovered. And yet, as she laid there, that's where she wrote a lot.

One of the things she wrote is she said, pain is never easy to bear. But help comes, doesn't it? Strength for the day, strength for the minute, and it will never fail us if only we will look up.

When you see these things begin to come to pass, don't look around for the solution. Don't look around how you can fill. Don't look around, can I do the work of God to just, maybe I can stave off this trial.

When you see that begin to come to pass, look up. The strength will be there. Father, thank you so much, Lord, for your word this morning.

Thank you, I don't have to try and bring a meaning to it. I don't have to do some mighty work or mighty deed to qualify myself to be a partaker of it.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us this beautiful picture of bread. Who cannot partake of bread? And Lord, in the feeding of the 5,000, the bread, the wording there for bread is barley cakes.

Barley was the food of the poor. The rich, those who are well-supplied in this life, they would never eat barley. Barley was for the poor, for the needy, for those without many resources.

Lord, you did not come as a loaf of top-shelf bread.

Lord, you came for the poor, for the needy, for the broken, for the lost. Lord, you broke yourself and you made yourself accessible to any who would see that bread, receive that bread, and partake of that bread.

And Lord, I know that this is a room full of people with needs because I'm a person with need. And Lord, I know that this world doesn't have the resources and yet often I fall into the trap of expecting you to use this world's resources to make me satisfied, to use the relationships of this world, to use the stuff of this world, to use the healing that happens in this world, to use the happiness of this world, to satisfy my need.

And all the while, Lord, all the while, Lord, you're standing there with your broken body, with those broken pieces of bread, and offering me something so much more than that, Lord.

You're offering me life eternal, a deeper satisfaction to meet a deeper need that can sustain me, Lord, not only through this life, but through death and into the next one, and I thank you for that.

Lord, I pray this morning that as we now stand and worship you, as we close with this song, Lord, as we invite you, Holy Spirit, to minister to our hearts now with the word that you've spoken, Lord, that, Lord, you would meet those deep needs, not with what we expect, but with what you promise, with the bread of life that comes down from heaven.

We love you, we see you, we believe you, in Jesus' name. Amen. That came off a little heavier than I expected it to, but it is heavy.

I know a lot of you are carrying heavy things, and I think it's a good word because we can fall into the same trap as these people. We're with Jesus, we're following Jesus, we're listening to Jesus, we want Jesus, and we begin to think that for Jesus to meet my need, it must satisfy something, this material, something that has to do with my situation.

When Jesus comes and he says, I've satisfied every need because the need is spiritual, and every need that we have is satisfied in Jesus, and I don't want us to walk away thinking that maybe I've done something wrong, I didn't do his work correctly, he didn't receive me, or he hasn't listened to me because my situation stayed the same.

but in every situation he can give us life, and he can give us life that will sustain us. Amen? If you want prayer, I'd love to pray with you. I don't know how God wants to meet your need in a particular way, but I know that every need has within it the same calling to us from the Lord is to look up, and sometimes we need a brother or sister to come alongside us and help us to do that.

So if you would like prayer, I'd love to look up with you. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you.

May the Lord be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you, enjoy some fellowship, and look up.