Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: The teachings of Jesus change lives, and we're excited to unpack them.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Read the Red. Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of John 6:32-58.

JP Jones: Good morning. I'm Pastor JP. It's a pleasure to be with you here this morning to worship the Lord. If you have your Bibles, would you open to John chapter 6? Our passage will also be up on the screen. We're in a series called Read the Red.

The idea behind this series is we're looking at the teachings of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus actually teach? What did Jesus teach about God? About knowing God, about experiencing God, about being transformed by a relationship with God? What did Jesus teach about discipleship? What does it mean to follow Him and experience Him in our lives every day? What does it mean to live in union with Jesus Christ?

The teachings of Jesus change lives, and we're excited to unpack them. We're looking at them chronologically. We start at the very beginning of Jesus's public ministry. We're going to work ourselves all the way to the end, and we're seeing kind of the development of Jesus's teaching. And in John chapter 6, we have a passage that is a difficult passage.

It's difficult in some of what Jesus has to say in understanding it, and it's even more difficult in putting it into practice. At the same time, having just preached this sermon in our classic service, I'm excited to preach this sermon because the content of this teaching of Jesus is kind of in what I'd call my sweet spot.

I mean, this is what I love talking about because it's all about experiencing a personal relationship with Christ, for the person who's outside of faith. What does it mean to cross the line and come into a relationship with Christ? And for a person who's a follower of Jesus, what does it mean to surrender your whole life to Christ? Because I have discovered, maybe you have, if you've been here a while, listening to me preach, that basically that's the message I come back to all the time.

If you don't know the Lord, how to open up your heart and receive Him into your life and experience the gift of eternal life and salvation. How to cross the line. If you have crossed the line, how to give your whole life to Christ so that you live in union with Him and experiencing Him in a full way every day of your life. That's what Jesus is talking about in John chapter 6.

Only He uses a very difficult metaphor to understand it. We'll see if we can unpack it. Starting in verse 26 of John chapter 6, Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you're looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God, the Father, has placed His seal of approval." And then they ask Him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" And Jesus answered, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent."

So, let me establish a context. Jesus is on the Sea of Galilee. A big crowd gathers around Him. He's teaching them. They're kind of off away from any of the stores or restaurants or Mickey D's. So, He says, "Does anybody have any loaves of bread?" And some bread is offered up, and Jesus prays over it and starts breaking it up and giving it away to people, and it just kept getting broken up and given away, broken up, given away, broken up, given away. And He feeds thousands of people. He does a miracle.

So, He finishes His teaching, and He goes to another part of the lake, and He looks out, and it's the same crowd. They followed Him. And Jesus goes, "Uh-huh, I know what's going on here. You're not coming because you think I'm a great teacher. You want a free lunch." So, He addresses kind of the heart motivation behind why people were there to engage with Him in His teaching.

And in doing so, He exposes something about every one of us, even here this morning. It leads us to ask ourselves, why are we here? What's our motivation? Why is it that we're seeking after a relationship with God? Why is it that we're putting ourselves in a position to hear spiritual teaching? Why is it that we're looking at God's Word and asking what does it say to our lives? Why is it that we are in some level of pursuit of a relationship with Jesus Christ?

And what Jesus says is, the ultimate reason to believe in Jesus is to receive eternal life. See, that crowd of people is no different than this crowd right here this morning or any other crowd. You see, people have mixed motivations. And even in our own lives sometimes we have mixed motivations. If we're if we're honest with ourselves.

You know, sometimes people seek after Jesus because they just want a better life. They're dissatisfied. There's there's some level, either a high level or a low level of dissatisfaction. They hear the Gospel of Christ or they know somebody who's a Christian or they hear about some church in their community and they say, maybe that's what I need.

So, it's really prompted by some dissatisfaction. Other times people seek after God out of real desperation. I mean, there's a life crisis. The bottom is dropped out relationally or emotionally or physically or financially. And out of desperation people want to pursue God and the understanding of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, some people are just spiritual people. And maybe you are, or maybe you know someone like that. I've met people like that. They're just deeply spiritual, they've always been spiritual. And so the concept of Christianity or a relationship with Jesus Christ is a spiritual pursuit and it intrigues them on a purely spiritual basis and they want to seek after spiritual reality.

Some people are truth seekers. They want to know the ultimate issues. Is there a God? Is there life after death? Why am I here? Is Jesus the only way to God? Is the Bible true? They're seeking truth.

You see, there's a lot of presenting reasons why a person would pursue after Christ. Why a person would come to church. Why a person would read the Bible. Why a person would be in the crowd that Jesus is speaking to. Now, for them, many of them, they were there because He fed them. And that seemed like a pretty good deal, so they came back.

Now, here's the deal. Whatever the presenting reason is, Jesus always dealt with people from that point forward. So, rather than psychologically analyzing what got them there in the first place, it's kind of like, "You're here, so now let me tell you why you ought to be here and where you go from here."

So, let's just assume a whole variety of motivations have brought us here this morning. The real issue is, okay, now that we're here, where do we go from here? Because what Jesus says is, ultimately, we are to pursue after Him because He's the only source of salvation. He's the only one who can give us eternal life. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by Him. See, Jesus, speaking to the crowd that He was speaking to, said, "Don't continue to work for the food that perishes."

"Now that you're here, work for the food that gives you eternal life." And they said, "Okay, well what is that?" He said, "Believe in the one who sent, believe in Me. I can give you eternal life."

Back when I worked in youth ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. I worked at a couple different campuses, but at UCLA, the ministry that I was involved in was largely within the Greek system, guys in the fraternities, gals in the sororities. So I started Bible studies, I I talked to people, I interviewed fraternity presidents, I used to hang out at chapter meetings, I'd go and build relationships and I started at one point Bible studies in almost all the major fraternities at UCLA and in the sororities as well. We had a lot of kids involved, a lot of kids came into relationship with Christ. Many of those kids went on to become missionaries and pastors.

But I discovered something. When I started a Bible study in the sorority, more girls would come to the Bible study in the sorority than when I started a Bible study in a fraternity than guys would come to. There was like a greater responsiveness among the gals than there was among the guys. But when I did what's called a Bible study exchange, that is, we had a Bible study in the Cap Alpha Theta house and we invited all the guys from the Sigma Kai house, more guys came to the Bible study that happened at the Cap Alpha Theta house than came when I had the Bible study at the Sigma Kai house. You see what I'm saying right here?

And guess what? I didn't care because once they were at the Bible study, they were there. And while they were there, I got to talk to them about Jesus. I really don't care why you're here this morning. I don't. I don't care whether you're here because you're seeking after Jesus Christ, you've surrendered your whole life to Christ, or because you just wanted to see what this funny looking preacher looks like, or if you wanted to check out the music, or you were going to give blood and thought, "Oh, it's on a church campus, I guess I'll sit in and listen to the music and the worship." I don't really care why you're here.

But now that you're here, the most important thing for you to consider is the fact that only Jesus Christ can give you the gift of eternal life. Don't continue to work your whole life for that which perishes. Receive the gift of eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ as the one whom God has sent.

Jesus continues in His dialogue with this crowd and what He had to say prompted their discussion. Verse 30 says, "So they ask Him." This is in light of what He just said, "Don't continue to work for the food that perishes, but do the work that leads to eternal life." Believe in the one who sent them. They ask, "Well, what miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." And Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth. It's not Moses who's given you the bread from heaven, but it's my Father who 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."

"Sir," they said, "From now on, give us this bread." And then He declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, who believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you've seen Me and still you don't believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up on the last day. For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

Second observation. Jesus is the bread of life, and whoever believes in Him has the security of eternal life. The security of eternal life. Jesus says, "I'm the bread that came down out of heaven." Now, there was a context that Jesus understood and His audience understood, but maybe some of us don't understand. Jesus is talking about an experience in the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament where the children of Israel, led by Moses, left Egypt and were wandering in the desert. And they reached a point where their supplies were depleted and they're out in the middle of the desert, and I've been there, let me tell you, there's nothing there but desert.

So, they cried out to God and said, "We're going to die of hunger out here." There's no food. And so God heard their cry and provided for them and gave them what's called manna. It was like dew that was on the ground. It was like a a wafer type bread that had a sweet honey type taste.

But the thing was, it only lasted for a day. So, they couldn't store up supplies. They had to depend on God every day to provide the manna. And so they're wandering in the desert, and every day they'd come out in the morning and there was the manna, and they'd gather it, and they'd have enough to eat that day. Remember the prayer Jesus in the the Lord's Prayer? "Give us our food this day."

God provided for them in a daily on a daily basis, and what Jesus is saying was, that was a real event, but it was pointing to something in the future, it was pointing to Him, the fact He is the bread of life who comes down out of heaven, who meets our needs today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.

Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the only one who can forgive our sins. Jesus is the only one who could meet the deepest needs of our heart's cry. Jesus is the only one who can give us purpose and significance and life and wholeness and health and spiritual forgiveness, you see. He's the living bread who's come down out of heaven, and He says, if anyone will believe in Him, if anyone would receive Him, they'd receive eternal life.

In fact, Jesus says, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and all that the Father gives Me will come to Me and believe in Me, and all that the Father gives Me will come to Me and believe in Me and I'll give him eternal life, and all that the Father gives Me will come to Me and believe in Me and I'll give him eternal life, and I'll raise him up on the last day." You can't get any more secure than that.

Jesus wants His followers to have absolute security in their eternity with God. He wants us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we're loved by God, that we're accepted by God, and that we're going to spend eternity with God.

God wants us to know that. And Jesus is promising that to us. And so Jesus says, "I'm the bread of life, and I I meet your deepest spiritual needs." Now, Jesus introduces some great mystery here because He says, "No one comes to Me unless the Father draws him." But then He says, "If anybody comes to Me, I'll not cast them out."

So which is it? Do we come to God or does God draw us to God? Yes. It's both of them. See, there are some passages in the Bible that teach this whole equation of our relationship with God and salvation is totally determined by God. And there's some passages in the Bible that are phrased in such a way that it is a free offer to anyone who would receive it and choose to accept it. And then there's some passages in the Bible where both truths are taught side by side without a real clear explanation of how they work together, and this is one of those passages.

So you say, JP, how can I know if God has really chosen me and God has really drawn me? Do you want a relationship with God? Yes, I do. Will you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Yes, I will. God chose you.

Jesus is saying, "All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me." Will you come to Jesus? That's the question. Don't worry about what the Father's done. Worry about what you're going to do. Do you want to believe in Jesus Christ? Do you want to come to Jesus Christ? Do you want to eat of the bread of life? Do you want to have the full assurance in your heart that you have eternal life? Then believe in Jesus Christ, and embrace Jesus Christ, and depend on Jesus Christ every day because He's the bread of life, just like the manna they had to depend on God for it every day, depend on the bread of life today, tomorrow, get up and depend on the bread of life, the next day get up and depend on the bread of life, and the bread of life, Jesus Christ, will guarantee your eternity with God.

Because He's the bread of life who's come down out of heaven. And if we come to Him, He will give us eternal life, and He'll raise us up on the last day. So, this teaching now creates a controversy because in any crowd there are people who are seeking after God sincerely. And there are people who are just there to argue and get into religious discussion and just kind of be posers.

Which by the way, that's what we have to decide. Are we real believers or are we just posers? Are we spiritual posers? Because in the crowds that Jesus attracted, there were true disciples and then there were spiritual posers. And the posers always had conflict with Jesus and got into arguments with Jesus and got into arguments with one another.

Says you in verse 41, "At this, the Jews began to grumble about Him, because He said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.'" They said, "Is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, 'I came down from heaven'?" "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered, "No one can come to Me unless the Father has sent Me, draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It's written in the prophets, they will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God, and only He has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, He who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I give for the life of the world."

And then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us this flesh to eat?" And Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him, just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me." I told you, kind of a difficult teaching, even more difficult to put into practice.

Here's what I think Jesus is saying. Number three, believing in Jesus means total surrender and total identification with Jesus. Total surrender and total identification. Jesus is not a cannibal and He's not teaching cannibalism. But if you were with us a couple weeks ago when we looked at the parables of Jesus, we saw in Mark chapter 4, Matthew chapter 13, that one of the reasons Jesus spoke in parables was to simplify and clarify truth to authentic seekers. But to actually obscure truth from people who had hard hearts and hidden agendas.

So, when Jesus gave analogies, those whose hearts were humble and pure and were really looking to God, the analogies actually made it more understandable. But to those who were just looking for a religious argument, the analogies bugged them, aggravated them, and made them want to get into theological controversy, which Jesus never engaged in.

And so now Jesus is speaking to a group of people. You got to put it all in the context. He performs this miracle. He feeds thousands of people. And so the crowd followed Him. Now within that crowd, there were people who were coming to Jesus for all kinds of reasons. But it didn't matter, they were there. And so He says, "Don't work for the food that perishes, work for the food that gives eternal life. Believe on Him who sent Me."

And then He says, "I'm the bread of life. I'm the one who can satisfy your deepest longings. I'm the one who can forgive your sins and give you the certainty of a relationship with God. And if you'll believe in Me, I will raise you up on the last day."

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red, and we're looking at the teachings of Jesus. What did Jesus teach about God, about salvation, about discipleship, about eternal life, about experiencing God's love? Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived and His teachings have life. His teachings have power to change us today, because Jesus is the Lord of life. And in John chapter 6, the teaching that we're looking at now, Jesus says some phenomenal things about who He is and what it means to come to know Him, and what it means to come to know God personally.

Jesus makes this claim in John chapter 6, "I am the bread of life." Jesus says that He is God Himself and that He's the one who nourishes our souls. When Jesus says, "I'm the bread of life," He's He's connecting back to this great statement of God in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus where Jesus is revealing Himself to Moses and Moses sees the burning bush and God speaks out of the burning bush and says, "I am that I am." And the Hebrew people understood that statement to be this direct claim to deity, to be the only God. Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John makes this claim in so many words and says that I am the I am that appeared to Moses.

And Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." In other words, Jesus is God and what He does in our lives is He He provides the nourishment that our soul needs the most. The deepest cry of your heart is satisfied in Jesus Christ. The deepest need that you have for forgiveness is satisfied in Jesus Christ. The deepest need that you have for relationship is satisfied in Jesus Christ. The deepest need that you have for intimacy is satisfied in Jesus Christ. The deepest need that you have in purpose for life is satisfied in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the bread of life.

You see, what every person needs more than anything else is to be made right with God. And the only way we can be made right with God is through Jesus Christ. Because we come into this world as rebels towards God. We come into this world either passively or actively shaking our fist at God. The Bible says every person has a problem called sin. Romans chapter 3 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And the only provision for our sin is Jesus Christ who is the bread of life. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and He rose again from the dead. And through Jesus Christ we can have our sins forgiven. Through Jesus Christ we can be reconciled to God. Through Jesus Christ we can receive the gift of eternal life.

Jesus is the bread of life, and when we believe in Him, we receive the gift of eternal life. Coming to Jesus Christ is the deepest need that every person has. It's the deepest need because the problem of sin cannot be overcome on our own. It can only be overcome through God's provision, and that provision is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the bread of life.

Right now, as you're hearing this message, what you need to experience more than anything else is reconciliation to God. And if you've never called on Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, don't miss this opportunity. Don't put it off, and don't let anything stop you from coming to Jesus, who's the bread of life. If it's your desire to know God and have the certainty of eternal life, would you tell Him right now and even make my prayer your own?

Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. I believe you rose from the dead. I believe you're the only Savior. I believe you're the bread of life. Forgive my sins, come into my heart. Give me the gift of eternal life. Give me the certainty that I'm your child and that you'll never leave me and you'll never forsake me. Jesus, thank you that you're the bread of life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.