Believe It or Not {John 6:22 - 7:9}
12:30 AM
Tuesday,
October 16, 2018
About
ten years ago, I was sitting at my son’s fifth grade basketball game chatting
with another mom. Her dad had recently
passed away and she was sharing some of her sadness with me. It had been a few years since my first
husband had died, so I knew a little bit about grief, and I told her, “only God
can fill that hole left by your father’s death.” She was so thankful I told her that. Fast forward to today. That God-size hole is still a thing. In fact, we all have a God-shaped void that
craves filling.
After
Jesus fed the 5,000 and retreated to the other side of the lake, the follower
said to Jesus, “Sir, give us that bread
every day of our lives.” (6:34) The bread that Jesus is offering is reunion
with God because that is what the soul is missing. Our soul is not craving for something, but
for someone. And until we have been reunited to that someone, our souls will always be
famished.
What
do we have to do to obtain this “bread from God”? I just love Jesus’ answer; “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he has sent.” (6:29)
It’s
just not something you can do. This is a
bread that is given to you as a gift. In
order for bread to do your body any good, it has to be broken – your teeth have
to break it in pieces and chew it up.
Jesus would be broken for us so that He could feed us.
In
order for water to do us any good, it has to be poured out. Jesus’ blood would be poured out so that it
could become the water of life to us.
The meal for our starving souls would be provided – entirely – by Him. Our part is simple. Take. Eat. And drink! We are powerless to restore what was lost. So God Himself did the work of restoring our salvation.
There
are two words that characterize the real gospel.
God: The true gospel’s primary focus is reconciliation/restoration
with God. John Piper said, “The gospel
is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God…’Behold
your God’ is the most gracious command and best gift of the gospel.”
He
doesn’t “give us this bread of life”, He is the bread of life. Until you feast on the bread of Jesus
Himself, all the other things you are seeking are going to leave you hungry.
C.S.
Lewis said, “It seems that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too
weak. We are half-hearted creatures
fooling around with drink, and sex, and ambition when infinite joy is offered
us. Like an ignorant child who wants to
go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are
far too easily pleased.” Remember Lisa’s
post yesterday? We think we want this
lesser bread.
There
are so many political and social causes these days. Yes, we are commanded to love and take care
of our neighbors, it just seems that we have lost the focus that Jesus died for
our souls. People don’t just need shoes
on their feet and food in their bellies, they need forgiveness of their
sins. We don’t want well-clothed,
well-fed people who die and go to hell.
We all want to alleviate suffering, but the most significant suffering
is eternal suffering. The suffering of
the soul that is starving from being separated from God. Our mission should not be just random acts of
kindness – it should also be bold acts of proclamation!
I
just want to point out something about politics while I have you here. One of the disciples was Simon the Zealot
(Jewish nationalist). The other was
Matthew the tax collector (Roman rule).
This means they were on POLAR opposites of the political spectrum. You have Matthew the tax collector [far
right] and Simon the zealot who fiercely opposed the state [far left]. Yet they are brothers in Jesus’ band of disciples. They did not lose their opinions; they were united
by a larger agenda!
The
second word to characterize the gospel: Grace.
The true gospel centers on what God has done for us, not what we should
do for Him.
The
gospel leads to profound change, but it is always in response to what God has
done. Those things are done because you
have been reconciled to God, not in order to be reconciled to God. It’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 …”Christ
died for our sins…” The true gospel
centers on what God has done for us, not what we should do for Him.
Believing
in something we do not see or have something to grasp, is very difficult. But what else can we do? The answer is nothing. We simply have to believe. I believe
the reason a lot of people struggle with believing in Jesus is because they
have never recognized that they were made for His glory. We are so fixated on quick fixes, physical
bread, that we never understand what we are missing. God.
And the only way He could be restored to us was for God Himself to have
His body broken like bread and His blood poured out like water.
We
are so consumed with small things; wonderful things, but lesser things, like marriage,
children, friends, houses, cars, boats, vacations, politics and world peace,
that we miss the true bread from heaven, the God behind it all!
And,
are we like so many, that become offended and desert Jesus? Are we going to hear Jesus ask, “Are you going to leave too?” Or are we like Peter, who replies, “Lord, to
whom would we go? You alone have the
words that give eternal life. We believe
them, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
(6:68-69)
Jesus
is the bread of life.
You
were created not for something, but for Someone.
Your
soul craves for His glory. You were made
for it.
The
alternative is to have a starving soul.
To enter into eternal existence, hell, with your soul still famishing
and starving. Hell, a place of
nothingness and fire, but worst of all, with all traces of the glorious love of
God removed. Like C.S. Lewis said, “God
threatens terrible things for those who refuse to be infinitely satisfied in
Him.”
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