[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning’s sermon is based on the Gospel reading from John 6. You may be seated. One of the first great statements by our Lord Jesus recorded in Scripture is His dialogue with Satan in the wilderness during His time of temptation. The first temptation that Satan throws at him after having fasted 40 days is to use his divine power to change the stones into warm, soft, delicious bread. Jesus responds to Satan’s temptation by quoting a passage from Deuteronomy 8 that goes like this, “…man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Now it’s interesting because in our text this morning, Jesus makes it very clear to everyone, as he did to you, he is the true bread from heaven, which a man may eat and never die. Amen. So he is laying out very clearly for us there and in this word that I am quoting to you this morning that there is a difference between bread that fills your soul and bread that fills your belly.
Now bread is not just wheat, flour, water, and yeast. Bread is anything in this world that appeals to your senses, that appeals to your feelings, your emotions, your well-being other than Jesus Christ being your true bread that fills your soul. He is making it clear in this morning’s Gospel reading that there is a priority disparity—a priority disparity between what you and I desire for that fills our bellies and what we desire for that fills our souls.
And therein lies your and my day in and day out conflict where we daily take up the cross and follow Jesus. Because Satan, just as he did to our Lord Jesus in the wilderness, wishes us to find immediate, self-gratifying, self-satisfying things in this world to fill our bellies, all the while we starve our souls. The reverse is our Lord’s great desire, that we would not be consumed by the thoughts that are in our heads and in our hearts toward the things of this world, and rather let our hearts be consumed with feeding upon the one who has said, I am the bread from heaven.
Now in this morning’s text, I hope you heard this because you have a quote in verse 24 in the Gospel reading where John reports that the people were seeking Jesus. The problem is that their seeking of Jesus was not for their soul to be filled. Their seeking of Jesus was for their bellies to be filled. In other words, they were more than willing to follow Jesus up one side of the Sea of Galilee and down the other through the hills and the dales as long as they could have their bellies filled and they would never have to work.
Who of you would not want to have a life like that in this world where it was never difficult or arduous? And in fact, when you think about how you posture yourself in this world, we do everything we can within our power to avoid things that cause us difficulty—things that challenge us, things that push us to deny our soul rather than deny our belly. And you and I know that the things that fill our bellies come and go. You have grieved over God taking away things from your belly, meaning things that made your life more comfortable—the job, the house, the car, the marriage, you name it.
And it seems as if God allows this to come upon you and you think, that’s not fair. And then at other times, God gives you more than you need. And then we’re not so willing to share it either because, by golly, it got taken away from us once. He might take it away again. But when He gives you food for your soul, His answer is always, of course. His answer is always, eat, feed upon me. His answer is never, oh, I don’t know. It is always more than willing and more than filling. It’s we who struggle with the disparity of our priorities.
The people were seeking Jesus, that is true, but they were seeking Him to fill their bellies—to be a savior in this world and this world’s struggles, not from this world, from the sin that dwells within our bosom. That was not what they were seeing. Regularly and faithfully your loving Lord invites you here to his chow hall, his defac, his place of service at his table where the family gathers for the Sunday family feast. Amen.
And He promises to feed you the best that He has, which is the one crucified for you. And yet, somehow, Satan has determined to get us to think that the food here is bland, boring, repetitious, rote, unfulfilling. I don’t think you would say that to your mother if she fed you a family dinner. And I know if you grew up in that house, your mother or your father would look at you and go, step away from the table and don’t eat then this evening.
Growing up with a father that was all about making sure your belly was full, one of his favorite sayings is, if you go away from this table hungry, that’s your own darn fault. I think Jesus could say the same thing to you. If you come to this table and you go away hungry, it’s not his fault. The fault lies in you for not seeing the bread from heaven that feeds your soul, that fills your soul, that never ever leaves you hungry.
He said, I’m the food that never perishes. I’m the bread that truly satisfies. And he punctuates that with this famous theological statement: on me, God the Father has set his seal. I’m the one. I may not look as inviting as the world’s bread. I may not taste always as sweet as the cinnamon rolls of this world, but I always fill you. And you know he’s right.
That doesn’t look all that sweet on that cross, does it? That doesn’t look all that cinnamony and sugary on the cross, does it? And yet that fills your soul because that paid for your soul. Hence Satan always wanting us to see the world and how beautiful and sweet it is and not see what was given to us to pay for us that we may see it in the life hereafter, eternal life.
Jesus loved these folks and He loved them dearly. And like all of us, they too need to be reminded that man does not live by bread alone. Their problem was ignorance. Ignorance. Now, ignorance is not stupidity, correct? Ignorance is not being informed. They were informed very clearly by Jesus. He’s the true bread from heaven. He brings you something that you will never hunger for or thirst for, and the Father has set a seal on Him to be the one.
He loved these people so much in their misguided desire for Him and seeking Him to get them to see what they really needed to seek Him—for the forgiveness of their sins and the soul that can be cleansed by that and the guilt that can be put aside by that. Because what matters the most is the Word of God that flows from the mouth of God. That’s the bread that always fills the soul. And man does not live by the bread of his belly alone.
But even that was not enough in their seeking Him. Because then they ask Him, well, what miracle are you going to show us? What miracle! They just got through having their bellies filled with five loaves and two fishes, and the number of people that were filled with these five loaves and two fishes were thousands upon thousands of people. What sign do you want us to see that we may believe you?
That’s a hardened heart and a very misguided heart. God’s revelation to destroy and disperse this ignorance is to say, I’m the work of God. You don’t make a deal with me. It’s not, if you do this for me, I’ll do that for you. No. Poppycock, he said, I do all things for you. I’m the work of God that fulfills all things. For the Father set his seal not on anyone else but me. I’m the food that God has given to feed your soul that only fills it and nothing else.
And I’m the one who by my Holy Spirit choose to do a work within you that you can’t do—the work of faith—to receive me who is the bread from heaven. I’ve shown you all the works that you need to see. And the works testify to only one, me. Trust in that revelation given to you. Something’s greater than here than anything Moses did in the wilderness.
For the people ate that special heaven-sent manna. And what happened to all of them physically? They all died. In fact, 40 years in the wilderness, the majority of them died in the wilderness, buried along the way. This bread from heaven that God gives you, which is His flesh, we’ll find out next Sunday, this bread from heaven is what feeds your soul so that you can live eternally, both spiritually and physically, live forever.
Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that flows from the mouth of God. Now the one thing that the people said in this text that you and I should have on our lips every single day is, Lord, give us this bread always. Give us this bread always. And do you know how he answers that prayer? Of course. Yes, I will always give you myself. I will always feed you myself. I will never withhold myself from you. I will always provide for you.
It’s just that you and I don’t always cry out to be fed. He’s the food of all the saints here in this world. He will be your food as you close your eyes in faith someday. And he has said, live your life as one who has fed upon me, the bread from heaven that feeds and fills your soul.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life eternal. Amen.
