Family Chapel

Jesus is the True Vine. As the True Vine, Jesus unites His people to Himself so that they can enjoy true life and bear much fruit. As branches, our role is to abide in Jesus. We can abide in Jesus as we regularly partake in the Word and prayer, as we engage in loving and joyful obedience, and as we love others with Christ's love.

Jesus is the Way. As the Way, Jesus provides exclusive access to our true home with the Father. He opens up the avenue for sinful people to dwell with the holy God through his work on the cross. Since Jesus is the Way, we should know the Way, trust the Way, and walk the Way.

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. He has defeated our ultimate enemy, death itself. Therefore, we can confidently die to self and experience the power of the resurrection life.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus exemplifies sacrificial commitment for his sheep, enjoys relational intimacy with his sheep, exhibits a missional impulse to find lost sheep, and exercises victorious authority over death to save his sheep. Because Jesus is the Good Shepherd we can wholeheartedly follow after Him.

Jesus is the Door. As the Door, Jesus provides protection in the midst of danger and Jesus provides entrance into a flourishing life. As such, we can take great risks for Christ because we are truly safe in His arms and we can enjoy great rest in Christ because we have true abundance through Him.

Jesus is the light of the world. As the light of the world, Jesus reveals the Father, so that we can rightly understand who God is. As the light of the world, Jesus exposes our sin, and thus lovingly invites us to confess and to repent of our sins. As the light of the world, Jesus leads us out of darkness, so that we have the hope that one day all will be bright and darkness will be no more.

For this Sunday, we will look at Jesus' declaration that he is the Bread of Life. We will see how Jesus teaches us that there is a false "bread" that will never satisfy, a "bread of life" that provides the ultimate satisfaction, and how we might receive this bread of life.

The very first thing that Jesus does before starting his public ministry is to go off to the wilderness in silence and solitude. As we seek Christ first, we need to seek to do the same. Silence and solitude can transform our lives as it exposes our insecurity and as it solidifies our identity. We can rightly practice silence and solitude as we reserve, remove, relax, and receive.

As we strive to seek Christ first, one of the biggest challenges many of us will face is our busyness. We live such hurried lives with too much on our plates as we constantly rush from one thing to the next - and tragically, we wear our busyness as a badge of honor. Instead, we need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives because a life of hurry leads to being distracted, discouraged, self-centered, critical of others, and too busy for Jesus. The solution to a hurried life is to slow down and to simplify our lives around Jesus as his disciples.

As we seek Christ first, we need to press on with godly dissatisfaction and we need to press on towards God’s Kingdom completion. We press on with godly dissatisfaction because we still have a long way to go and we do have a hunger for more. And we can press on towards God's Kingdom completion as we follow behind the right runners and keep our eyes on the prize.