Bread for Today Vs. Bread for Life Eternal
This was my sermon for today. This past week was extra busy with party prep for yesterday's party. I also did some candidacy work and went to the church ad-council meeting. I feel pretty much like a pastor now, since I have done some visiting at the hospital, care center, and in member's homes.
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This week in our Gospel reading we are continuing with the account of Jesus’ ministry one day after he had fed the 5000. Jesus is trying to teach the Jews about his own nature and the Jews are doubting him. Jesus has told them that he comes from and was sent by God the Father, but they say, “Don’t we know this man?” “Don’t we know his father?” “How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”
These people have gone from wanting to force Jesus to be there king, because he had fed the multitude with just the five loaves and two fishes, to now doubting Jesus’ teaching about being sent by God and even God’s plan for salvation. The people want a prophet that will keep their bellies full and dazzle them with even more signs and wonders.
Jesus is trying to turn their minds onto the things of heaven, that last, rather than earthly temporal things. Jesus teaches them from the old testament where it said that they would be taught by God. He tells them again that any people that has heard the teachings of God and learned them will be lead by the scriptures of the old testament to him as the promised Messiah.
Jesus is trying to teach the Jews that he is the way to eternal life, and he is trying to teach them a little bit about the nature of eternal life. When W.B. Hinson was faced with an illness that threatened to end his life on earth he set his mind on his spiritual life, on eternal life. Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said, "I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, 'You have an illness from which you won't recover.' I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ' I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!' " This eternal life is the life that should have been important to the Jews that Jesus was teaching, instead of their fleeting life on earth.
For the past month Jenny and I have been working more and more on putting together plans for a party to celebrate completion of major construction on the addition to our home and to thank all of the people that helped us to finish that work. We put this party together with a lot of prayer, just as we had worked on the addition construction project with a lot of prayer, asking God to lead us through it. Each day this past week we spent time cleaning up our house, and decorating and finishing off things in our new rooms. We spent time gathering groceries and supplies for the meal during our party. We spent the better part of the day Saturday from about 9 until 5 getting the final touches completed and the food presented and prepared. In fact, by 7 o’clock last evening, we were both so tired from working on the preparations that we both probably could have packed it in for the night and gone to bed. We put that party together by the grace of God and we were doing it with Christian hearts, but it was still just a temporal thing. We fed people their evening meal, plus all of the toasted marshmallows and s’mores that they could eat for one day. Maybe the fact that we started the party by thanking everyone there for their support of our building project through their prayers, blood and sweat and by thanking God for his many gifts and blessings was a witness that might lead some to think about their relationship with God and their need for eternal life, but otherwise it was a very temporal thing. The food that we ate yesterday, like the food that we will eat today will be burned up and used by our bodies, and then, eventually, we will be hungry again, but the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ, feeds us spiritually and we when have eaten of it, our spirits will never go hungry again.
Our neighbors from two doors down came to our party yesterday. In the summer of 1956 they were the ones that built the original part of the house that we now live in. They brought with them a photo album that had pictures of the house and what their life was like in it with their children 50 years ago. Back then it looked different, it did not have front door, it had one at the north end of the house. Back then it did not have a bathroom inside, it had a little house out back. It was very interesting to see what the house looked like fifty years ago when they lived in it and to see how it has been changed through the years as other owners and residents have come and gone. The addition that we built in the last year has probably been one of the biggest transformations to it., but all of this is temporary stuff it does not matter in eternity. The homes that we are living in now seem pretty important to us today, but the one that really matters is the mansion in God’s house that Jesus went to prepare for each of us for our eternal lives in heaven.
In this morning’s gospel Jesus repeats the teaching that he had given in the reading from John for last week, when the Jews had challenged him about how God had provided manna for the Israelites while they were in the dessert. He repeats the image of himself as the bread of life as he says, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Here he is using the imagery of bread because it has been something that the people have just said that they want him to continue providing because to them it satisfies their hunger and sustains their lives. Jesus is trying to teach them very clearly that the important bread that God provide is the Savior that can redeem them from sin and provide salvation so that they can live forever with God in heaven. Jesus says, “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Do you think that the Jews will understand and accept this teaching? Will they be able to turn their minds toward heavenly and eternal salvation rather than earthly satisfaction of their physical needs? You can read on with this at home, or if you can wait for the next episode we will have a chance to continue with this record in next week’s gospel lesson. This same question is important for us today, Are our minds on heavenly things, salvation through Jesus Christ, the bread of life, that brings to us eternal life? Let us pray that they are. Amen.
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This week in our Gospel reading we are continuing with the account of Jesus’ ministry one day after he had fed the 5000. Jesus is trying to teach the Jews about his own nature and the Jews are doubting him. Jesus has told them that he comes from and was sent by God the Father, but they say, “Don’t we know this man?” “Don’t we know his father?” “How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”
These people have gone from wanting to force Jesus to be there king, because he had fed the multitude with just the five loaves and two fishes, to now doubting Jesus’ teaching about being sent by God and even God’s plan for salvation. The people want a prophet that will keep their bellies full and dazzle them with even more signs and wonders.
Jesus is trying to turn their minds onto the things of heaven, that last, rather than earthly temporal things. Jesus teaches them from the old testament where it said that they would be taught by God. He tells them again that any people that has heard the teachings of God and learned them will be lead by the scriptures of the old testament to him as the promised Messiah.
Jesus is trying to teach the Jews that he is the way to eternal life, and he is trying to teach them a little bit about the nature of eternal life. When W.B. Hinson was faced with an illness that threatened to end his life on earth he set his mind on his spiritual life, on eternal life. Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said, "I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, 'You have an illness from which you won't recover.' I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ' I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!' " This eternal life is the life that should have been important to the Jews that Jesus was teaching, instead of their fleeting life on earth.
For the past month Jenny and I have been working more and more on putting together plans for a party to celebrate completion of major construction on the addition to our home and to thank all of the people that helped us to finish that work. We put this party together with a lot of prayer, just as we had worked on the addition construction project with a lot of prayer, asking God to lead us through it. Each day this past week we spent time cleaning up our house, and decorating and finishing off things in our new rooms. We spent time gathering groceries and supplies for the meal during our party. We spent the better part of the day Saturday from about 9 until 5 getting the final touches completed and the food presented and prepared. In fact, by 7 o’clock last evening, we were both so tired from working on the preparations that we both probably could have packed it in for the night and gone to bed. We put that party together by the grace of God and we were doing it with Christian hearts, but it was still just a temporal thing. We fed people their evening meal, plus all of the toasted marshmallows and s’mores that they could eat for one day. Maybe the fact that we started the party by thanking everyone there for their support of our building project through their prayers, blood and sweat and by thanking God for his many gifts and blessings was a witness that might lead some to think about their relationship with God and their need for eternal life, but otherwise it was a very temporal thing. The food that we ate yesterday, like the food that we will eat today will be burned up and used by our bodies, and then, eventually, we will be hungry again, but the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ, feeds us spiritually and we when have eaten of it, our spirits will never go hungry again.
Our neighbors from two doors down came to our party yesterday. In the summer of 1956 they were the ones that built the original part of the house that we now live in. They brought with them a photo album that had pictures of the house and what their life was like in it with their children 50 years ago. Back then it looked different, it did not have front door, it had one at the north end of the house. Back then it did not have a bathroom inside, it had a little house out back. It was very interesting to see what the house looked like fifty years ago when they lived in it and to see how it has been changed through the years as other owners and residents have come and gone. The addition that we built in the last year has probably been one of the biggest transformations to it., but all of this is temporary stuff it does not matter in eternity. The homes that we are living in now seem pretty important to us today, but the one that really matters is the mansion in God’s house that Jesus went to prepare for each of us for our eternal lives in heaven.
In this morning’s gospel Jesus repeats the teaching that he had given in the reading from John for last week, when the Jews had challenged him about how God had provided manna for the Israelites while they were in the dessert. He repeats the image of himself as the bread of life as he says, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Here he is using the imagery of bread because it has been something that the people have just said that they want him to continue providing because to them it satisfies their hunger and sustains their lives. Jesus is trying to teach them very clearly that the important bread that God provide is the Savior that can redeem them from sin and provide salvation so that they can live forever with God in heaven. Jesus says, “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Do you think that the Jews will understand and accept this teaching? Will they be able to turn their minds toward heavenly and eternal salvation rather than earthly satisfaction of their physical needs? You can read on with this at home, or if you can wait for the next episode we will have a chance to continue with this record in next week’s gospel lesson. This same question is important for us today, Are our minds on heavenly things, salvation through Jesus Christ, the bread of life, that brings to us eternal life? Let us pray that they are. Amen.
posted by Robert C. Howell at
7:14 PM
