Grace Messages

Last week we saw that Jesus’ brothers had a worldly campaign strategy for Him related to the upcoming Feast in Jerusalem. The Feast of Tabernacles was the most popular of all the feasts and had both a nationalistic and religious element to it. God had brought them through wilderness and would one day dwell with them permanently, AND God continued to meet their daily needs by providing their harvest for them. Because of the nature and festivity of this feast, Jesus’ brothers had said “show yourself to the world!” This morning Jesus will explain that God the Father’s timeframe and strategy were different. There were other things that needed to be said and done, before Jesus would be publicly presented to the nation!

Last week we began to see the aftermath of Jesus’ teaching of the Bread of Life discourse. Many were NOT comfortable with what He just said – they were NOT comfortable with the claims He was making regarding His ID – and most of all they were NOT comfortable with how far He took the metaphor of BREAD. This is why MANY of His disciples left Jesus, never to follow Him again. We will look at two additional responses this morning: (1st) We will look at the response of the 12 disciples, AND (2nd) We will look at the response of Jesus’ brothers. The first response is largely positive, but the response of His brothers is negative.

Last week Jesus finished up the Bread of Life discourse in the synagogue in Capernaum. This morning we will see the aftermath of His teaching. Many were not comfortable with what He just said. The lack of comfort involved the claims He was making regarding His identity, and with how far He took the metaphor of "bread." Over the next two weeks, we will look at three responses to Jesus' message: (1st): We will look at the response of MANY disciples of Jesus! (2nd): We will look at the response of the 12 disciples. (3rd): We will look at the response of Jesus’ brothers (in chapter 7).

This morning, we are going to see Jesus continue to ratchet up His dialogue with the crowd in Capernaum. Most bible teachers, pastors, and evangelists are interested in growing their audience, but this morning we are going to see Jesus shrink His audience! By continuing to build on His metaphor of the Bread of Life, Jesus says some things that do not sit well with those in His audience. As a result, Jesus' ministry will never be as popular as it was before these statements. It is with these final statements that He concludes the Bread of Life discourse.

We left off last time with a cliffhanger, of sorts, in verse 44 about the Father drawing people and what that meant. As a reminder, Jesus was in the middle of a discourse with a large crowd in Capernaum. Again, this was the same crowd He fed miraculously just the day before. Because He just fed them, and because it is Passover time, He uses Bread as a Metaphor for Himself. This morning, Jesus will describe the eternal benefit of "eating" this "living bread" OR "bread from heaven." "Eating" is simply another illustration Jesus uses for believing in Him, as we will see from the text.

"Keep on Moving" is an exhortation to each one of us, individually, and to our local church, corporately. It is a reminder to keep pursuing and growing in our relational intimacy with Jesus Christ. Even though we are celebrating our 41st anniversary as a local church, we should never rest on our laurels, we should never become complacent, and we should never become satisfied with where we are at today. More of Jesus is ALWAYS a good thing!

We continue this week in the Bread of Life discourse. Remember, ultimately the purpose for this message is for Jesus to clarify His identity for this crowd. Jesus had just said some pretty amazing and dogmatic things in verses 35 and 37. He used three emphatic negations in verses 35 and 37 - “Never, no not ever hunger (v35)…thirst (v35)…be cast out (v37)." So, now the questions are: HOW can Jesus say what He just said so emphatically? WHY can He speak with such confidence and assurance? As we will see, it is because Jesus is confident this is God the Father’s Will! Sermon on John 6:38-44

We left off last week with Jesus at the very beginning of a discourse with a large crowd in Capernaum. This is the same crowd He fed miraculously just the day before. This discourse has come to be known as the Bread of Life discourse, and we will see Jesus and the crowd will go back and forth with their questions and comments and His corrections and clarifications. If we were to summarize and give the main purpose for the discourse, it is simply this: Jesus is attempting to clarify His identity for this crowd – He is their promised Messiah and thus they should trust Him! Now we are going to see something UNIQUE in the passage today – one must come TO the Bread of Life (by faith) in order to arrive WITH the Bread of Life in the resurrection.

In John six so far, we have seen two of John’s hand-selected miracles back-to-back. He provides two out of his seven hand-selected miracles in the first twenty-one verses of John chapter six - the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus’ walking on water. Now, with the SAME crowd He just fed, He will attempt to clarify His identity through a teaching discourse. There is definitely some "back and forth" during this teaching as evidenced by the crowd's multiple interjections (v25, v28, v30, v34, v42, and v52). In His teaching, Jesus will use the feeding of the 5,000 as a basis for a metaphor about Him being the BREAD of LIFE.

Last time we met, we attempted to set the stage for the ONE miracle in the life of Jesus that was recorded in each of the 4 gospel accounts – the feeding of the 5000. This miracle was really a preliminary attention grabber for the main discussion – the Bread of Life Discourse! As we move forward in this account Jesus will take His disciples from the classroom of discipleship into a discipleship practicum. He does this by involving them in His miracle and modeling grace-based and dependent ministry.