More bread
Saturday, September 30, 2017
John 6:26
“Lord, give us this bread always.”
So now they want more bread. This matter of the bread is not coming to an end. We are so tied to our bodies and the natural that that it takes quite a long time for the spiritual to sink in.
It’s like the woman at the well whom Jesus met earlier. Jesus, in answering her, gave a response that could not in any way be related to the natural, but she immediately made a demand that connected to her physical needs and activities.
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
So it was with these brothers here. Jesus said, in verse 32, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Their immediate answer was “Lord, give us this bread always.”
Even after Jesus had pointed out to them previously, as we examined yesterday, that they should not be so tied to the physical that they miss the spiritual, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him,” they continued to pursue the fulfillment of base needs. Not just for the moment, but for always.
Jesus handles this crowd the same way he handled the very woman at the well. He made a revelation of Himself as the Christ, who is the fulfilment of all of our needs. We tend to think of Jesus as being able to fulfill our needs, but not that He IS the fulfilment of all our needs.
Here is want Jesus said in verse 35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
In other words, if you want bread for always what you really need is Jesus. Outside of Jesus the real hungers of life are never met. We may satisfy the body with a good meal but, despite how good the meal is, the hunger would be back. Needs that are meet with Jesus are completely satisfied. Never hungering and never thirsting are concepts that we are incapable of embracing if our thinking remains purely physical and natural.
Too often, as a result of bad doctrine and poor teaching, we lead people to think of Jesus only as provider. The good godfather to whom we run when things are brown. So our loyalty to Christ is based on the meeting of our needs as we determine them. We come to him like the men in this crowd, we got some bread and we want more bread.
Think on these things:
- How much of your prayer time is focused on seeking relationship God as compared to asking him for things?
- What are the real hungers and thirsts in your life that are yet unmet?
- When you encounter others with needs what do you share with them about Christ?
Prayer focus:
Let us continue to pray today that we would learn to “seek the giver not the gift.”
In His Grace
Pastor Alex