What if Jesus disagrees with me about what I need?
WATCH
I Am, 1 of 7 from March 1, 2026
“Let your selfish desires drive you to Jesus, and let Jesus rewire your desires.”
John 6 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores Jesus’s declaration “I am the bread of life” from John 6, challenging listeners to examine what truly satisfies them and to recognize how often they approach Jesus with selfish, temporary desires. Pastor Michael emphasizes that genuine belief in Jesus is more than intellectual agreement; it is a trust that changes how we live and recognizes Jesus as the only true source of lasting fulfillment and eternal life.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 What has made you curious about who Jesus is? What do you want from Him?
💬 How would you describe your hope for the future?
💬 If Jesus is telling the truth what do I need to change?
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Well, good morning, church.
Have you heard. Have you heard that you only get one opportunity to make a first impression? Have you heard that? I think I heard that in high school. And it was one of those classes, you know, those classes that are designed, like, the parents or the teachers, as they're writing them, they're like, we want to equip these students for the real world.
We want to help them, like, understand what life is going to be like. And so we're going to design these classes to kind of onboard them into adult life. And so that's kind of the heartbeat behind it. But what it feels like is nothing that I do is ever going to be good enough. And my parents just hate me.
Like, so when you're in, like, one of those, like, high school classes, and they're like, hey, you're going to go in the real world, and you've got to dress up. You got to put a tie on for a job interview, you're like, this is hard. Like, I would rather not have a job if I have to put a tie on for a job interview. Maybe that's just me. I don't know.
But it was all kind of encapsulated in this idea that you only get one chance to make a first impression. And so it was like, oh, okay, cool. Like, I already, like, as a high school student, I already am, like, hyper aware of what everybody else in the room is doing. And I already am constantly thinking about how they think about me. And now I go in to meet new people.
And the thing I'm thinking about as I meet new people is, they gotta like me first or I am doomed. I'll never get a job. I'm gonna go hungry. I'm gonna be living on the streets. Cause I forgot to wear a tie.
And they think I'm a slob. Okay, that's just me.
First impressions are important, right? But I also, like, as I've gotten a little bit older, I also, like, don't trust them as much. Because I'm not the only one who was told that you only get one chance to make a first impression. I think everybody else got that mem. And so what I've noticed.
And this is just Michael. This is not Pastor Michael. This is just Michael. Michael. He's a little bit cynical.
When I'm meeting people for the first time and I am gauging the first impression they're making on me. My radar is going, what do you want me to believe about you as a first impression? That is masking what is actually true about you in your first impression. So it gets weird in my head, and I hope you guys don't live there, but there's this thing of when you meet somebody, what meeting is the version of them that they want you to meet most of the time. Right.
Maybe it's just me. Okay. Okay, cool. It's a little bit hard. I guess it's hard sometimes when people say the thing that we all kind of implicitly like, are doing.
Right? So that's the idea. And so when we get to something as important as, like, who is Jesus? What is Jesus about? You probably already have an impression.
I'm guessing you have an impression because you're sitting in this room here this morning, right? Or you're tuned in, you're hearing my voice. If you're hearing my voice, you probably are somewhat curious or you know something about Jesus. Because most people don't come to church without having any kind of idea about, like, who that guy is or what he's about, right? And there are a lot of people who have a lot of different ideas.
There's a lot of people who say a lot of things about Jesus. There's a lot of people who say a lot of things about what Jesus said. And we can get confusing. And so we're going to take a couple of weeks here in the springtime and just take a look at what Jesus said about himself. Not first impression.
Not what I want you to think about Jesus, not what your grandma wanted you to think about Jesus, but, like, I want to take some time and read the verses for yourself. Like, is that fair? I just want to take a look at what did Jesus say about himself. Because there's a couple of times where in the course of his ministry, in the course of his teaching, Jesus was very, very clear. I want you to know who I am and what I'm like.
And he would often introduce that, like, identification. He says, I am blank. And he would insert some kind of a metaphor, some kind of image. And then he would spend some time unpacking that image. I just want to talk about those statements.
Where are the times where Jesus said who he is? Where are the times where Jesus talked about what he was like? And let's see if Jesus in his own words gives us anything to kind of cling to for life. Is that cool? Can we do that together?
Okay. A couple of you are with me. The rest of us, let's pray. We can all pray. We need that.
It's our habit, neighborhood, church to pray the disciples prayer. I've got the words here on the screen. If you're not familiar with the English Standard Version, that's what I'm praying out of. But like this is the model of prayer that Jesus left for his disciples. If you want to pray, you should pray like this.
And I'm just a simple enough guy to just do what he said, so. So let's pause real quick. We'll close our eyes together.
Let's take a deep breath.
And let's pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Would you navigate with me to John chapter six? And if you are using the blue Bibles that are tucked under the chairs in front of you, it starts on page 1029. Here is a side note that I can get distracted by.
I'm going to try not to. If you have a blue Bible in your possession that you got from us, those page Numbers are now wrong. So the publishers have decided that they no longer want to print the giant print ones. And I was forced to buy all new blue Bibles so that all the page Numbers match. So I do that for you.
If you're a guest with us, I want you to know we do that as a service to you. We want you to read the scripture for yourself. And so that's why I have these blue Bibles. I preach out of it so that I can call out the page Numbers so that nobody feels lost. Right.
But if you have an old copy of the blue Bibles, what that means is Jesus is inviting you into a discipleship moment where you don't have to use the page Numbers anymore.
John, chapter six.
John, chapter six.
If this was my eighth grade class, I'd go through the books of the Bible till we got to John. But I won't do that. It would take a minute. Okay. John, chapter six.
This is dangerous sometimes. My notes are really, really long and the text is really short. We've got 70 verses that we're going to read together this morning. Because I want, like, I want us to hear Jesus in his own words. We're going to read a lot of verses, but I only have a page of notes, so we'll see how this goes.
Alright, let's start with verses one through four, shall we? John, chapter six. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now, the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand, so we'll just pause there. Let me set the scene really, really quick. Jesus in the chapters before this has been dealing with the sick. What he's been doing in his dealings with the sick is he's been healing them. Kind of piques your interest.
Like he's just a guy who's walking around. They bring sick people to him. He touches them, he prays for them, and then they're healed. And so now he has crossed the sea. And now he is as he's doing that.
There are people who have followed him. They're coming because they heard about what he was doing with the sick people. Like he wanted to. They wanted to see what he was doing. And I know I said I was just going to introduce this, but there's a principle here that I want us to grab onto.
It's not going to be comfortable. I love you. It's not going to be comfortable. But it's one that I think we should all just kind of make peace with. Okay, are we ready?
It's this. We all start exploring Jesus for selfish reasons.
I've never met a single person who didn't get curious about what Jesus was about for a reason that had to do with them. And so we all across the board, we start exploring Jesus for selfish reasons. These folks, they saw what he was doing with the sick and now they're kind of curious, right? Okay, let's pick up in verse five.
Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, who's one of his disciples. He said, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for?
So many. Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now. There was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about 5,000 in number.
Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is come into the world.
Let me pause there. Okay, so did you see the miracle? And what happened? So Jesus is teaching, all these large crowds are coming. He turns to his disciple Phil.
I don't know why Phil got picked on today, but he did. He says, hey, Phil, how are we going to feed these people? Phil says, Bro, $24,000 could not pay for enough for everybody to get a bite. He said, well, how many denarii does he say? 20,000, something like that.
A denarius was a day's wage, right? So if we do $15 an hour for eight hours for the week, like he says, it's going to be about minimum 24,000. Wouldn't be enough to feed this crowd. Like, we've got a big problem on his hands. And then Andrew shows up, and Andrew's like, hey, I got a kid.
Kid brought lunch. He's got five loaves and two fish. Is that what it says? Yeah, five barley loaves and two fish. But what is that?
And Jesus is like, have everybody sit down. Okay, now this is just a side note. This is a whole different sermon, but y' all should know Andrew, because every time Andrew shows up in the Biblical text, he is bringing somebody to Jesus. If. If our mission is inviting our neighbors to meet and follow Jesus, Andrew is our guy.
Because every time you see Andrew in the text, he has gone and found somebody and he is bringing them into Jesus presence. Says, you got to meet this guy. So that's a different sermon, though, okay? And so he takes this five loaves of bread and these two fish, and he just starts passing them out. He just passed the basket around.
And everybody takes and they eat and they eat their fill, which for us would be like, Wednesday, whatever. Like, we eat three times a day, right? But for these folks to be able to eat a meal, one meal where they eat to the full, that's like feast level thing. Like, that's something that doesn't happen all the time. They would eat enough for what they needed.
And most of the time, there Just wasn't enough to eat to the full, but everybody in the crowd ate to the full. And then Jesus says, okay, let's clean up after ourselves. Disciples go around and get all the stuff. Let's make sure nothing gets wasted. And so the 12 disciples each walk away with a basket of food.
12 baskets, 12 disciples. I think Jesus is like, pack your lunch, boys. We're going places, right? And the point of the story, I think, is that Jesus can use whatever gift you bring to him to be a blessing to many other people. So on the heels of our series where we talk about we hold God's gifts with open hands, each of us is entrusted with time, talent and treasure, experiences, resources, abilities.
Like, God can take whatever it is that you got, negligible or not, and he can use that if you bring it to him, if you put it in his hands, he can use that to be a blessing to many other people. So I think, like, that's a really, really cool story. Would you agree? Cool. It is one.
I think it is. I'm going to say this, and you're going to. Some of you are going to argue with me. It's okay. I think this is the only miracle.
This is the only miracle from Jesus's normal, like, ministry block that's repeated in all four gospels. So we have this big holiday. You probably have heard of it. It's called Christmas time, Right. And only two of the gospels talk about what happened when Jesus was born.
Like, I would think that would be a bigger deal. We have this thing that we do every quarter or so. Some churches do it every single week. We call it communion. And Jesus even said, you should do this as often as you get together.
You should do this in remembrance of me. He leaves it as an ordinance that they ought to do. And it's not in all the gospels, but this story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish is in every single one of them. So I think there's something that was essential to what we need to understand about who Jesus is and what he's doing here. And every single one of the gospel writers, like, thought that it needed to be included.
Okay, okay. So let's look at 14 and 15. They do this, and the people, like, kind of respond to this miracle. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
So he Feeds this crowd of people, 5,000 men, probably more people than that, and feeds them to the full. And they're like, you are now in charge. You can be the president of my life. They're going to take him by force and make him king. And he says, I'm not doing that right.
Another thing to remember is that our plans don't always match up with God's purpose. There's times where, as we respond to what God's doing, we come up with an idea that God didn't actually have in mind for us. You fed me today, one meal, and I ate to the full, and now I want to make you king. And he's like, that's not what we're doing here right now. Even if you were here last week, even David, like, he had the idea of, like, I want to make a house for the Lord.
And God said, I love that you want to do that, but you're not going to do that. Because sometimes our plans don't match up with God's purpose. He's got something else that he's trying to do.
So before we go on any further, let me just ask you, what was it that made you curious about who Jesus is? Like, just think for yourself, for you. What was the thing that made you curious about who Jesus is? Was it something that your parents did or your grandma did? You're like, I don't really understand, but they keep making me go, I guess I gotta listen to this.
Or was it that you were, like, at the rock bottom and had nowhere else to turn, that he showed up miraculously? Or he sent somebody who pointed you to who he was, and. And you just were like, I got no other answers. I guess this is the one we'll try. Like, what was it that made you curious about Jesus?
And then, like, what do you want from him?
Like, we all started somewhere, and I don't know, we're all in different parts of our journey. We all started somewhere and we're all here today. So today, maybe you haven't thought about it. What do you want from him? Why'd you come today?
Why are you listening now? What are you looking for? We all start exploring Jesus for selfish reasons. And oftentimes our selfish reasons keep us around for a while.
But our plans don't always match up with God's purpose. So I think it's helpful to start with, like, what are you looking for?
Jesus comes to the end of this day, everybody's happy. They're fat, bloated, now they're sleeping. They got all those carbs settling in. And the disciples get in a boat and they leave. And Jesus takes a hike across the sea.
He can do that. He gets away with it. But everybody wakes up the next morning and they're like, hey, where's the guy with the bread?
We got to figure this out. And so the next day they go and they look, let's pick up in verse 24, I'm going to. To skip the walking on water part, mostly because John does the other disciple. The other gospel stories, like, make a big deal about that, but John just kind of. Yeah, this happened too.
Okay, so John, chapter six, verse 24. We'll pick up there. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. So where's this guy? I'm going to go find him.
We go to Capernaum. That was kind of his home base. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, rabbi, when did you come here? And Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you were seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him, God the Father has set his seal.
Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. We'll pause there. So we all have material needs. I don't want you to feel guilty for feeling hungry.
Like, we all, like, do need to eat. That's one of the things that God made us to do. However, the substance of our life is far greater than what we get hungry for.
And we actually, like, will settle for far less than what God intends to bless us with. These people would have been satisfied for Jesus merely to be a king that provided for their food. Like, we're happy. You can be in charge of my politics as long as there's bread on my table. Okay?
That's. That's the deal they were trying to make. And they would have been satisfied with that. Their eternal souls were in peril. And they would have been satisfied with bread on the table every week.
It reminds me of this picture I saw. It's kind of cute. I don't know. I don't usually share social media stuff. Like, this is kind of adorable.
Like, we're satisfied with far less than what God wants to give us. We're. They're like, we just want some. And he's like, yeah, don't work for things that are going to die. Work for the things that are going to bring you life.
How does he phrase it? I'm in a new. You ever go to a new Bible and, like, the words are in the wrong place on the page? Sorry.
Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Don't focus on the things that are going away. Invest yourself in what is eternal. We have in us an innate desire for eternal things. But if we're left to ourself, we will try to meet those eternal desires with temporary quick fixes.
You know how I know? I got a snack drawer.
I got a whole drawer with snacks. It's not. I mean, and y' all know Jessie. She's. She's delightful and she's a great nutritionist.
And so it's healthy snacks, right? It's. It's granola bars and it's nuts and it's. Things like that. But it is not a meal.
But I know where that snack drawer is. That was. I don't know where anything is in my house right now. I could not even find the charger for my laptop this way. I am so lost.
But I know where that snack drawer is.
We have an innate desire for eternal things. There's something in us that is not satisfied, that we constantly are longing and wanting more and more. And we will. Left to our own devices, we will try to satisfy those desires by temporary quick fixes. Just what we do.
And Jesus says, don't. Don't do that. Don't stuff your face so full of food that you let your soul rot. Don't fill your eyes so much with entertainment that your brain shuts off and keeps you from connecting with the Lord. Don't fill your hands so much with stuff that you neglect the needy that you're walking past.
Like, don't let those quick fixes be satisfactory to you, because they won't. They're dying.
So we all. We all start exploring Jesus for selfish reasons. So let your selfish desires drive you to. To Jesus, and let Jesus rewire your desires.
If we can make peace with. Everybody starts off for selfish reasons, I think we as a church would do much, much better in loving people. Sometimes we get frustrated. Come to church. I came to church and there are all these people, and they were all.
They're all selfish. They're all just trying to get their own thing. And yes, that is what we do. And we are learning to let Jesus rewire our selfishness so that it actually is fruitful. But we don't start there.
It's an ongoing work that he's doing. Let your selfish desires drive you to Jesus. You have desires. I know you do. And I want you to be curious about who Jesus is.
I want you to have questions. I think those questions are going to actually bolster your faith. But let those questions and let those decisions, desires drive you to the One who can satisfy. And when he shows up, when you show up at his feet and he says, the thing that you're looking for is not the thing that you need, don't walk away because he does that. Do you know Jesus is not very interested in making sure that you like Him.
If you come to Jesus, the odds are very, very likely that he's going to question what your desires are. And he's going to push back against the thing that you came to him for. Not because he's mean, but because he loves you enough to tell you that the thing that you want won't satisfy. So let your desires drive you to Jesus and then let Jesus rewire your desires, because he can do that.
We can do that too. It's not as really not a popular teaching. Like you can change what you want on purpose and we're not as good at it as Jesus is. And so I'm going to default to letting him change my heart. I've not tried it, but heart surgery on myself doesn't really work, so I'm going to let him do it.
And what does Jesus say? He says our primary task is to believe. Did you see that? Let me find it on the page here. Verse 30.
They said to him, what sign do you. Nope, that was too many. 28. What must we do to be doing the works of God? What's our job?
And Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. Jesus says our primary task as disciples of him is to believe in Him. Like, oh, cool, cool, cool. I know that. I know that verse.
I can believe. I even know the prayer. I pray. Prayed, the sinner's prayer. Have you heard it?
Like, God, I forgive me of my sins. Like, I repent, like, I know all the words I've done. I even walked the aisle. They signed my name in the front of a Bible. I did the thing.
Like, I know, I know, I know. The belief, though, is not purely intellectual. You're Not a brain on a stick. If your thoughts were sufficient to save you, then you, like, would have a more organized life. Don't you know?
Like, if you could think your way out of your addiction, then you would have done it. If you could think your way out of the relational issues that you have and that you carry that are ongoing, you would have done it already. If you. Knowing the right thing is not the same thing as doing the right thing. So Jesus says our primary task is to believe.
Oh, I believe. I know that Jesus came. I know that he's a historical figure. I know that he says that I have to trust him for eternal life. I. I believe all of that stuff.
But belief is not primarily intellectual. It is a trust is a genuine trust. Another word the Bible uses is faith. Like, I don't trust a lot of things, but, like, I trust him. And when I put my faith, when I believe in Jesus and he tells me that my desires are gonna kill me, I trust that.
And when I trust him and what he's teaching and how he's showing me, I change what I do. Because what we believe intellectually is validated by how we behave practically.
Does that phrase make sense? I'm looking at it now going, that was too many big words. What we believe intellectually, what we believe in our head is validated. It's tested, it's proven out by how we behave practically by what we actually do. So we can say, I believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
You can say, I believe that's true. But then I can behave as though the world is disgusting and needs to be destroyed, and I want nothing to do with it. I'm not going to anybody. I'm not sharing any of my stuff with them. What we believe validated by our behavior.
And if you're hungry and your hunger drives you to go and find some food, how we eat that food, when we find it, may tell us what we believe about the food, or it may tell us about the nature of our hunger.
Sometimes you're, like, super duper hungry. You go and you find the food, and the food you find is like poison. It's bad for you. Like, okay, I believe this food will kill me, so I'm not going to eat it. I'm hungry, but I'm not hungry enough to die.
And then there's sometimes where you're hungry, and so you go and you find some food and the food isn't what you want. And you learn that I wasn't as hungry as I Thought I was.
What's for dinner tonight, Mom? I don't like it. You're not hungry enough then? Okay, let's read some more verses. Verse 30.
Let's start. 29. Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever blessed believes in me shall never thirst. So people are asking. They say, hey, Jesus, I hear what you're saying.
I get your teaching. But, like, what do you, like? Can you give me some more signs? I just need another proof. And he's like, have I not done enough for you?
Are you not entertained? They want another demonstration of who he is. Maybe they're just hoping for another lunch.
What sign will you do? Remember? Because they're like, hey, remember. Remember that sign that God did for us where he fed us for 40 years? You want to do that one, Jesus?
Because that's the one I kind of came to see, right? Like, food every day for 40 years, not having to work for. I mean, you go and pick it up, but it's not doordash, but it'll work, right? You want to do that one? And Jesus says, you're confused, my man.
He says, you're thinking about Moses, and Moses was the guy that God used. And all of that was to point you to the fact that God was going to be the one that was going to supply what you need. And God sends the bread. God sent the bread down from heaven. If you want to read that story, I think it's fascinating.
It's in Exodus 17. But this is a lot. So if you need some homework. Exodus 16. Excuse me.
They're like, hey, Jesus, can you prove yourself? And he says, don't you know that God has already proved himself? And he says that you've miscredied the miracle. It was God. It was not Moses.
And by the way, the bread that God was sending all along was me. I am the bread.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us the bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.
Jesus is the bread of life. He is the only true satisfaction that we can find under the sun.
If I had a better answer, I'd give it to you. I'm not that smart.
Jesus is the bread of life. Whoever comes to me, he says, shall not hunger. Whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives to me will come to me.
And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he's given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Jesus says, I am the bread of life, and I'm the only hope you have for satisfaction under the sun. And I'm the only hope you have to be fulfilled with God after you die.
We were talking about food. I was thinking buffet, like now you're making it all meh. Talking about death. What do you mean? Why you got to remind me that at some point I'm going to die?
Because, friends, we live in a world that won't remind you that someday you're going to die.
And the only hope we have to be fulfilled with God beyond the sun, on the other side of death is Jesus. Do you hear how confidently his.
This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son, everyone who sees me, everyone who explores me and then believes in me should have eternal life. And I'll raise Him up on the last day. He says that phrase, I'll raise him up on the last day. Repeatedly in this path passage in this chapter. I'll raise him up on the last day.
There is something in Jesus thinking, assuming that he's got a good perspective, there's something in Jesus thinking that as he meets our material needs, it is always connected to our eternal need. And he is always moving history towards the last day when everyone will see who he is and what he's done.
So how would you describe your hope for the future if you had to write it down. Like, it's hard to get out of bed in the morning some mornings, Right. So how do you describe your hope? How would you describe your hope for the future? Is it just the daily grind?
Is it just another dollar? Is it just another toy? Is it just another pat on the back? Or some stranger telling you that they like your photo, though?
Or is your hope for the future resting in the one who made time and shares with you just a little bit of it?
That's the teaching. That's the point. I am the bread of life. Jesus says, whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
That's a bold claim. I don't make that claim for myself. Our mission as neighborhood church is to invite our neighbors to meet and follow Jesus. It's never going to be Michael. It's never going to be Ryan.
I like him a lot, but he won't satisfy you like Jesus will.
So the question is, how do we respond? The rest of these verses are full of responses. Okay? And so I'm going to. We're going to kind of go through them here, starting in verse 41, chapter 6.
Starting in verse 41. So the Jews grumbled about him. They grumbled because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? I've heard that story that we just did.
December.
How then, how does he now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. There it is again. It is written in the prophets.
And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life, I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate 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. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Just pause. Valid question, Right? A valid question. All right. Verse 53.
So Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day there is again. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him, as the living Father sent me. And I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
And Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. So how do people respond to Jesus? Some people grumble about what is true.
Jesus hasn't. Like, he hasn't told them anything that isn't true. He says, I'm the bread of life, and unless you eat my flesh, unless you buy into my message, unless you surrender your life to me, you're not going to have eternal life. Some people will grumble about things that are true, like, ah, God, God, I think I hear what you're saying, God, however technically what you mean is. And we'll argue him down and we'll grumble, what do you mean, God?
What do you mean that my desires are killing me? It's not really that bad.
It's not. That's not really robbing me of eternal life. Maybe just a little bit of life, but not eternal life. Like, you're a little bit extra here today, Jesus. What are you talking about?
And there's some people who will grumble about what's true. He says something that's true that they would not have discovered by themselves, and they hold it against them. Now, he's not doing anybody any favors, right? This is one of the weirdest things that Jesus said. Like.
Like, if any teacher gets up and says, I need you to eat me, you should walk out.
But Jesus says, there's something deeper that I'm doing here. And y' all don't get it. You guys are locked in on the. On the Old Testament stories. You're locked in on who you think Moses is.
You're locked in on where you're gonna get to eat lunch today. And I don't need you to be locked in on that. I need you to get locked in on something else. So he's saying things to kind of shake them up. And then they get shook up and they lean.
They're like, no, that's not true. Rather than being like, why would he say that? How. How does he mean? There's a difference between asking, how can he mean that as you're walking out?
And another thing where you're saying, how do you mean that? And you lean in because I said, I want you to have doubts. I want you to question who Jesus is. The danger is when you ask who Jesus is as you're walking away from him, your doubts will help you. If you lean in to ask the one who has the truth.
And if you leave and go and wander around and you can find any opinion, you can find anything you want to say, anything you want, like, for real, if you want to believe it, you can. There's nobody stopping you. And you can justify yourself till you're blue in the face. But it's not true.
Some people grumble about what's true. Let's look at verse 60, When many of his disciples heard it. Oh, good, good, good. We get to hear what the disciples say. Now there's the 12 disciples.
You guys know them. There's more disciples. But these are people who have, like, said, I'm with Jesus. I'm going to follow him. Many of the disciples heard it.
They said, this is a hard saying. This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it but Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The disciples are grumbling too.
I thought those guys glowed in the dark. They were. They got those shiny things on their heads. They're grumbling at what Jesus taught. How dare they?
Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, he said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who was betray him. And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. And after this, many of disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Some people grumbled against what is true, and some people grumbled against what must change.
The disciples were people who were like Jesus teaches the truth. I believe intellectually that what he's saying is true. And he's making this statement like this is a difficult statement. And he's saying, yeah, I can see that some of you do not believe, which is leading me to think that he's asking for more than just an intellectual ascent, more than just an agreement that Jesus is somebody who existed, that he came, even that he rose from the dead. The demons know that Jesus came back from.
From the dead. And it's not sufficient to save them.
The belief is in what, how you behave. And these people are looking and they're believing. They're hearing what he's saying. They're going, oh, my gosh. If what Jesus is saying is true, then something has to change in me.
And he's looking them in the eye and saying, I can see that you don't believe because you're grumbling about what needs to change.
And some people leave.
We're often our biggest stumbling block to following Jesus. Like, my understanding gets in the way of me understanding. But it's silly. It's silly for us to come to God as, like, needy and wanting. And then when we get to him, to insist that we're doing just fine.
It's silly to come to God and say, God, I need you with this. I need your help. Like, I've got these selfish desires. I've got this situation that's falling apart. Lord, I need you.
And we get there. He says, listen, son, I see. I love you. Here's what needs to change. Actually, I'm fine.
Friends, if God agreed with all of your opinions, then he wouldn't be very good God.
And if you come to Jesus hoping that he already agrees with you, spoiler alert, he don't.
If you could understand who God is completely and what he's doing in your life already, then you would be God. But if you've got questions and God seems to be disagreeing with you, you then make sure you know who's sitting on the throne.
Because if you come to God and He disagrees with you, that should be a reminder that, oh, I am not the Lord and master of the universe, and perhaps I have something to learn from the One who made all things, knows the beginning from the end and sees not only the situation and the circumstances that are stressing me out, but he also sees the hearts and the motivations of the people that he loves dearly, that I'm ready to strangle some grumble at what must change, But that's not the end of it.
Verse 67. So Jesus said to the 12, he talked to his disciples. Now he turns his attention to the 12, do you want to go away as well?
Simon Peter answered him, lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Jesus, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him. Some grumble against what is true. Some grumble at what must change. And some persevere through their initial desires.
I think Simon Peter came to Jesus with some selfish desires to start. And I think if you read the story, you don't have to read it too closely to see that when Peter comes to Jesus, Jesus starts pushing against those selfish desires and says, pete, you got some things you need to change.
But Peter perseveres through those initial desires and realizes I don't have a better option.
What alternatives to Jesus are most appealing to you?
I almost took that question out of my notes because I don't really, like. I don't want you to think about it too much. But that's what he asked the 12. Do you want to leave, too?
I'm insecure enough that I would not give you that option. Y' all stay seated.
But Jesus looks at the 12. He says, Are y' all ready to go? You see these crowds of people that came. You heard me teach. Eat me, eat my flesh.
You see them leaving. You see the disciples leaving. They said they believed. They signed the doctrinal statement. Now they're gone.
You want to go, too.
And Peter's response has been an anchor for me personally for a long time. Lord, to whom shall we go? What other option do I have? Like, you came back from the dead. I got nothing.
Like, it's one thing to raise another person back to life. I feel like maybe, maybe that makes sense. But when you're dead, you don't have the power to intervene on anybody's behalf, much less your own. You came, you died like you said you would, and then you came back from the dead. I gotta deal with that.
That's a historical fact as far as I'm concerned. And we. If you want to talk about it, we can talk about it. I'm okay with you having doubts, but where else are we going to go to now? Props to Pete because he was sold out.
He was on board. He was on Team Jesus before the resurrection. I know that you alone have the words of life.
We've believed and we've come to know by how we live that you are the Holy One of God.
So the question for us is, is Jesus telling the truth about what I need to change?
Like, as we come to the Lord as we bring our cares and our concerns and our burdens to him. Is he telling the truth about what we need to change? And if he is, what does that mean for us?
Is there a belief or an understanding that actually needs to. We need to think differently about intellectually. Is there a belief that we say, we believe that we haven't actually, like, lived out yet?
And as I ask that question, if you're like me, you're like, what do I do? I gotta write the thing down. Application point here. Here we go. I've got three things to work on this week, and I'm going to report back to my.
To my accountability group and make sure I did something. Don't miss, don't miss, don't miss. How Jesus closed this. Did I not choose you? The 12?
He said it earlier on, nobody can come to the Father unless the Father permit him to come to me. And so before you run off with your to do list, before you run off with the behaviors that you need to change before you. Before you begin to do a word study to make sure that you change your thinking about a certain thing, make sure that you know that it's Jesus who's calling and directing you and leading you in that way. Because if you go on your own, you will fall. But if you come to him with humility and surrender, putting away your grumbling, persevering through what you think you need, need, then it may be that you might never be hungry again and you might never thirst.
I mean, that's what Jesus said anyway. Let's pray.
Lord, you're good. And this is hard. There's a lot of. There's a lot of landmines. There's a lot of deep, deep big ideas that are contained in these verses that we've just kind of skimmed over.
And so, Lord, if there's something that you're doing, if there is a direction that you're leading us, Lord, I pray that we would tune our hearts to your voice. You say you cry out on the street corners so that we would know which way to go. I pray that you'd help us to. To hear that voice above all the others in our world right now. I pray we would recognize your voice, our good shepherd over all the false shepherds of our history of our past and every false hope.
And Jesus, I pray that you would be drawing and calling your family home.
It's really, really clear to me in this text that the material needs are driving us towards our eternal restoration, that on the last day you have a plan to raise up those who come to you. And so if there's somebody who's hearing my voice, who has not believed that about you, not intellectually agreed that you are who you say you are, I pray that today, today would be the day that they agree with you. And I pray today would be the day that they surrender to you their understanding, their habits of life.
That all of this is above our ability to do in and of ourself.
Some days it's even beyond our ability to even want to do what you have for us. But I thank you that you have clearly articulated it is your will, it is your desire for us to come to your son Jesus, to believe on him and in that belief to have true, abundant, eternal, lasting life.
So Lord, would you point out to us where we've settled for less? And would you help us transfer our trust from those false gods to you, our one true Lord and Savior?
It's in Jesus name I pray.
