"On the following
day..." (v. 22). We need to remember that, whatever we're going
through today, there will be a better tomorrow! You may even look
around at the crowd and feel as though Jesus has left you completely
alone, but He will never abandon those who truly seek Him. In the
case of this multitude, they were seeking Him out for their own
selfish reasons..."because they saw the miracles, and did eat
the loaves and were filled" (v. 26). Just as we have read of
Jesus back in 1.48 and 2.24 and 4.18 and 5.42 and 6.6, he knows our
hearts and minds! He knew us "under the fig tree", as He
had told Philip.
We all know there's an
awful lot of "phoney baloney" in the world today, and it
was no different at the time of "this writing". It may
take a while for some of us to sift through it all but Jesus knows
the measure of a man. Hard to believe, isn't it?! In fact, some of
us may not believe it, but it's true; He knows our every motive, just
as He knew the motives of that crowd...why we do the things we do.
For example, why did the crowds really flock to Jesus? Well,
we read back in v. 15, to take Him by force and make Him their king,
in the hope of becoming an independent nation again! We see, nearly
every week, how fiercely independent Israel is, even to the
construction of a Berlin-type wall along the West Bank, when the only
One to bring them peace, is the King of Kings!
You know, our continent
has been blessed with a high degree of peace and prosperity, and that
prosperity has caused us to place far too much emphasis on the things
of the flesh...the worst curses of man...the RV, the TV and The RSP;
those things that steal our time and our attention away from the
things of the Spirit. The inflated system of values that we are
experiencing has forced us to offer the multi-million dollar salaries
to the sports figures and the CEO's and even to the multitude of TV
evangelists! Maybe all that attention is a curse rather than a
blessing. Well, when in doubt, check it out; check out Jesus, in v.
27. And then echo the question raised in v. 28; and the answer
becomes ever so clear, as we read in v. 29. Jesus will be King of
the Age, in due time, but for now, we need to give Him the rule of
our hearts! This is a dire warning and it applies to us just as
surely as it did that multitude on the hills above the Sea of
Tiberias.
The "carnal mind,
which is enmity against God" (Romans 8.7) is both unable and
unwilling to rise to the occasion, to the point where we are willing
to accept a free gift from God; or rather, it is unable, or unwilling
to stoop to the level of a beggar and receive everything in exchange
for the nothing that we really have. We've been taught that if we
don't pay premium price for something, then it's no good. It's no
wonder that we have such a name for God's greatest and most precious
attribute, and that is GRACE! Particularly when we read the
response of the people as recorded in vss. 30-31...a complete
spiritual vacuum... eyes that are blind and ears that will not hear!
Some people never really get it, do they? And we preach to them and
we pray for them and we practice the things of God in their lives,
and still they never really get it. They never come to the point of
ever wanting to invite Jesus into their lives. Even when Holy Spirit
simply says..."believe on Him Whom God has sent!" (v. 29),
the response is..."Show us a sign!" (v. 30) What a
challenge God is faced-with...the hard-hearted and the stiff-necked!
Jesus has said that believing is seeing; short on faith? be long on
obedience!
Let me tell you...if you
want to experience peace with God, you need to put your brain into
reverse. That's the way Jesus explains it and that's the way it must
be; we need to back up and change our way of thinking about Jesus.
It was true...Moses gave the people manna, and that nourished their
bodies while they wandered in the wilderness; but Jesus teaches that
manna is a pretty poor substitute for True Bread; even those
wandering Jews would have agreed with that! And from that short
discourse, Jesus launched into His teaching on the Bread of
Life...the only Bread the world has ever needed, then and now!
Take a gander at vss.
32,33..."Then Jesus said unto them...". Let me tell you,
when Jesus speaks, you listen; and especially-so when He starts out
with a "verily, verily", like we saw back in v. 26. It's
as though He's saying..."Just put your Sunday School papers down
for a minute and listen, because what I have to say, is Truth!".
"Moses gave manna, but My Father gives life"; He might
just as well have said..."Moses was, but The Father
is!" And to take that even further, He could have very well
said..."I Am Life to the world!" And their response was
short and to the point..."Lord, forevermore give us this bread!"
(v. 34) Sound familiar? Look back at ch. 4.15.."Sir, give me
this water that I thirst not...". These words reflect the
beginning of faith..."Lord, give us what we lack!"
Now, in our minds, this
crowd was "ripe unto harvest", but remember, Jesus knows
the heart of man. We are so caught-up with the five senses, and
every one of them starts with the letter "I"...I see, I
hear, I smell, I taste and I feel! But when Jesus speaks, He
says..."I Am!" And His saying in v. 35..."I Am the
Bread of Life", is only the first of seven "I Am"
titles that He holds in the Gospel of John, and nowhere else. Just
take a minute to look them
up...8.12...10.9...10.11...11.25...14.6...and 15.1.
Jesus has a rude surprise
in store for us, with this teaching on The Bread. Just as He had
told the Samaritan woman at the well, in ch. 4 that..."whosoever
drinks of This Water shall never thirst"; He here tells the
crowd..."He that comes to Me will never hunger!" And then,
those hard-to-hear words of truth in v. 36..."But...you also
have seen Me, and believe not!"; Jesus knows our hearts! The
fathers...vss. 31 and 49...had manna to eat, and they had died in the
wilderness; this crowd had had bread to eat, and they would die one
day too. But worse that that, they would also die the spiritual
death that results from plain and simple unbelief.
You know, there are people
today who meditate and hallucinate; and others who ruminate, and even
those who gravitate, not to mention those who fluctuate and deviate.
But the Lord wishes us to graduate, to a higher standard of
living...not in material terms as those Jews would be thinking; off
to a commune somewhere where Jesus would provide them with three
squares a day, and everyone would live happily ever after. But what
these people didn't realize, and many people today don't realize
either is that the True Bread and the True Water have properties that
can satisfy a hunger and a thirst that we don't even know we have!
He is a Person, and a Personality and a Personal
Power to save, secure and to satisfy every one who is outside of
Him!
Notice the assurance that
Jesus offered the crowd that day...
...v. 37..."all
that"/"him that";
...v. 38..."I came
down...to do (The Father's) will;
...v. 39..."The
Father's will is that none of them should be lost...that they
be
raised up on the last day";
...v. 40..."That all
who believe on Him may have everlasting life!
Now that's a promise I can
relate-to!
And Jesus declares it
to be The Father's will for me!
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