Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 2021
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and God of all comfort. Amen.
John 6:22-29 22The next day, the crowd that
stayed on the other side of the sea noticed that only one boat was there. They also knew that Jesus had not stepped
into the boat with his disciples, but they had gone away without him. 23Other boats from Tiberias came
to shore near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord gave
thanks. 24When the crowd saw
that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and
went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When
they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did
you get here?” 26Jesus
answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you
saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27Do not continue to work for the
food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give you. For on him God the
Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28So they said to him, “What should we do to carry out the
works of God?” 29Jesus
answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.
(EHV)
Seek the Bread that
gives eternal life.
Dear blessed ones in Christ,
Bread,
moolah, cash, scratch, loot, dough, bankroll, riches, treasure, t-bills, ice,
glitter—how many k’s in your 401-K? How
many bushels in your bin? We have oodles
of words we use when talking about money.
Do you suppose that money and treasure play a big part in our lives?
Naturally, we keep track of our money because
we use it every day. We plan for our
next years so that our businesses succeed.
We plan for our later years so that we can retire from our labors at
least somewhat comfortably. We hire
consultants and investment advisors. We
pay our government to insure our deposits in the bank. If we are not careful, someone might think we
are more like the people of Jesus’ day than we ordinarily imagine.
It was quite common in Jesus’ day for people to
view the rich as more deserving of God’s blessing. The Pharisees, especially, viewed wealth as a
sure sign that God was pleased with your efforts to obey Him. Others, on the other hand, were simply
looking for an easier path through life, because as we all know, working for a
living is hard. God told Adam, “By
the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the soil, for out
of it you were taken.” (Genesis 3:19)
And boy, don’t we know that has been proven true!
This past crop year, did you ever find yourself
questioning your relationship with God?
When it was unseasonably hot and dry, did you wonder if God was
punishing you, or our nation? When we
hear of terrible flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, out of control forest fires,
and climate change, does it make you wonder if God is disciplining the world
for its immorality and idolatry? When we
hear of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, killed by a new virus, do we
wonder if God is punishing sinners?
Now, I cannot say how and when God is
disciplining us, or the world, and He very well might be doing that all the
time. However, there is more than a
little chance that we are focusing our attentions more on worldly concerns and
less on spiritual concerns than we should be.
In our text, Jesus is teaching His people that instead of worrying too
much about earthly things, we should Seek the Bread
that gives eternal life.
The events of our text happen the day after
Jesus fed over five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small
fish. It was a miracle of epic
proportion that no one had seen since the days of Moses when God provided bread
outside the tents of Israel every day for their forty years of wandering. In Moses’ day, the people grew tired of that
manna and complained against God. Here,
after witnessing this miracle, the people were ready to make Jesus their king,
hoping that He could provide their daily food without labor on their part.
When the crowd arose that morning, they
discovered that Jesus was not around even though only the disciples had left by
boat the night before. They were
mystified about where Jesus had gone and how He got there. I’ll let you read the account in the gospel
if you don’t remember. Anyway, the crowd
came “to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, ‘Rabbi,
when did you get here?’”
To us, it sounds like an innocent
question. However, Jesus knew their
hearts. That vast crowd wasn’t seeking a
Savior from sin. Instead, they wanted a
Savior from work and sweat. They wanted
someone to be their bread-king, their guardian from the Romans, and perhaps
their personal healer. Yet, they still
didn’t recognize their greatest need.
Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me
because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were
filled. Do not continue to work for the
food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give you.”
This year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, we
surely do want to give thanks to God for the rich blessings He has poured out
upon us even when the weather seemed highly uncooperative at times. We surely do want to thank God for every day
of health and blessing we have enjoyed, and for most of us there were many. We want to thank God for the love in our
lives, the money in our bank, the possessions in our homes, our homes and
lands, our food and clothes, and every talent God gives us through which we
earn our living. But, what if God in His
good wisdom took it all away? Would we
still give thanks with the same gusto, the same faith, the same appreciation?
Jesus said, “Do not continue to work for the
food that spoils.” He wasn’t telling
people to sit on their buts and wait for Him to feed them. That isn’t what this lesson is teaching us
either. Instead, Jesus wants us to be
seeking that one thing needful, which is His Word, His life, His being. Jesus told the crowd, “I am the Bread of
Life,…The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in
me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
But, the crowds grumbled. They
thought it was too hard a message to swallow.
Some were confused about what He meant.
Others rejected the truth that Jesus came from heaven to be their
Savior.
Seek the Bread that gives eternal life. Jesus wants us to
be looking to Him for forgiveness, life, and salvation. Everything else is easy. The Father knows we need food and drink,
clothing and shelter, and He provides them richly through the various ways He
gives us talents, jobs, and farms. Jesus
told the people, “Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for
the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The “food” Jesus refers to here is the
substitutionary work He was doing for you and me and for all. These are the things that give us life in
heaven, life that never ends.
Sin would keep us out of heaven and condemn us
to eternal death, but Jesus took away our sin.
Unholiness means death from God, so Jesus took our unholiness to the
cross and endured His Father’s rejection on our behalf. Yet, the honest sinner would plead, “We have
no righteousness to stand in God’s presence,” so we would still not be able to
live forever. Except that in exchange
for our sin, Jesus gives us His righteousness, His perfect humility, His
perfect submission to His Father’s will.
This is the Bread of Life Jesus gives us—Himself living a perfectly holy
life in our place—Himself suffering the curse of death as He hung on that tree
for you and me.
God the Father placed His seal of approval on
Jesus. The Father announced that
righteous decree at both Jesus’ baptism and His transfiguration. Ultimately, God put His stamp of approval on
Jesus when He raised Him from the dead Easter morning. That resurrection is the sure proof that Jesus
is our Savior from sin, death, devil, and condemnation. It confirms that everything the Bible teaches
is true, trustworthy, and effective for our salvation and eternal life.
The people who came to Jesus that day still expected
they would have to work their way into God’s favor, so they asked, “What
should we do to carry out the works of God?”
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the
one he sent.” The Bible tells us, “Faith
comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of
Christ.” (Romans 10:17) We are saved
through faith in what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Rather than seeking to earn our way to God,
God wants us to know that He has worked our salvation through His Son, through
His life and sacrifice on our behalf. Our
assignment is simply to believe it, but even that isn’t something we do. Rather, our faith is a gift of God to us by
the power of the Holy Spirit in the gospel.
Whatever we have in this life, no matter how
that compares to those around us, is a gift of God for our good. Be thankful for whatever God has given
you. Rejoice that He has blessed us far
beyond what any person has deserved.
More than that, though, recognize and believe that God has given you a
much greater gift in His Son than all the gold, silver, diamonds, land, and
whatever other materials things we might value.
Trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we will have the faith to stand with
Him through any hardship, or prosperity, with praise on our lips and in our
hearts for the God who loves us and has opened Paradise to us through Jesus. Seek the Bread that gives eternal life. Amen.
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