8/13/23 John 6:51-58 “Are You Hungry?”

11 Aug 8/13/23 John 6:51-58 “Are You Hungry?”

8/13/23   John 6:51-58        “Are You Hungry?”

I remember a few years back when I would just sit and be amazed by all the changes that my folks had seen in their lifetime.  They came from a time where there was no electricity.  Horses were still one of the main stays on the family farm.  They had no refrigerators, no TV, no microwave ovens and no telephone, let alone a cell phone.  And now look at all we have today.  I’m beginning to wonder about all the changes that I have seen in my life time.  Electronics and computers have changed everything we do.  One of the great benefits of all of this technology is that we have become much more aware of what we put into our bodies.  Some of our bestselling books in this country are health food books, cook books and of course diet books.  Everyone wants to be slimmer than they are and we also want to be healthier and live longer.  We have had a former heavy weight boxing champion of the world who comes on our TV sets and tries to sell us a grill so we can have healthier hamburgers.  We even have Olympic athletes telling us how we can be healthier, probably by exercising 30 hour a day!  Everywhere we look, people are trying to make us healthier.  Do any of these things work?  I don’t know.  Years ago, there was a runner named Jim Fixx who was convinced that everyone should jog.  He was probably the major player in starting the jogging revolution.  He died young of a heart attack.  I don’t know if any of this makes any difference at all.  But I do know that the food that God gives us will make a huge difference in our lives.  Let’s see if we can follow Jesus on this one.

I would like to begin today with a brief story from Dr. Maurice Rawlings who was a devout atheist.  He was also a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and he wrote a book call, “To Hell and Back.”  We have read stories or maybe we have lived them about how people describe near death experiences.  They always talk about the bright light, lush green meadows or something similar that is very peaceful.  They talk about seeing all of their relatives who have died.  Dr. Rawlings took this a step further as he interviewed 300 patients who had died and been resuscitated.  He interviewed them right after their resuscitation and before they had a chance to think about their answers.  He found that nearly 50% of the people interviewed reported lakes of fire and brimstone.  There were devil-like figures and other sights that could only come from the darkness of hell.  Later these people would change their story because they were ashamed to admit that they had been in hell.  This completely changed Dr. Rawlings as he is no longer an atheist.

I don’t think that it is our job to go out and find an atheist to convert.  There are too many other people who have not heard the message that need ministering to before we get to atheists who have already made up their mind.  They don’t want to go to heaven and that is their decision.

Jesus is telling us that He is the way to heaven.  He is the living bread that came down from heaven.  The people who Jesus is trying to reach here are having a hard time hearing the message.  We have had 2000 years of hindsight so that we think we understand this a lot better.  To these ancient people, they think that Jesus is telling them to eat his body.  Even today there are people read this and think it is some sort of cannibalism.  Usually, these kinds of people today are just trying to make trouble.

One of the problems in the Bible is that the writers used and Jesus used a lot of different ways to say things.  They use poetry, metaphors, parables and many other forms of writing.  Jesus is being symbolic here.  But the people don’t understand.  They continue to gripe and say, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  Ther are blinded and don’t want to see!

People didn’t understand in the days of Jesus and they don’t understand today.  I recently had a conversation with a person who seemed to know more about what the Bible than anyone I had ever met.  The only trouble was, they had never read the Bible.  They had relied on second-, third- and fourth-hand information.  Not only that but he had lifted verses out of context.  He had a total mish mash of misinformation.  The only thing he were sure about is that I was stupid and wrong and he was absolutely right.  There was no one in this world that would change his mind.  This person didn’t understand.  When you find a person like this, plant a seed and move on to someone else.  Too many other people are waiting for you.

Anyway, Jesus is telling us in black and white that He is the living bread that has come down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, then they shall live forever.  Jesus has come to us willingly so that the world may have life.  Unfortunately, the world doesn’t know Jesus as we read in John 1:10 which says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”

The people in the time of John were no different than we are today.  They were searching for the meaning of life.  If you were unfortunate enough to be born a peasant, you would probably stay a peasant and your meaning of life would be just existence.  Even though we like to deny this as much as possible, things are much the same way today.  We like to glorify the few who make it out of poverty but the majority of those born to poverty stay there.

For those people who aren’t in poverty, they are searching everywhere for the meaning of life.  In the time of John, there were many different religions that did not satisfy anyone.  We know this because the people would just go from one religion to another.  They would hop around.  They couldn’t find satisfaction in anything they did because there is no satisfaction in false religions.

We have the same thing happening today.  I mentioned an atheist earlier.  As a little sidebar here, when you think about it, what could be sadder than an atheist who believes in nothing?  At least if you are following crystals or pyramids, you believe in something even if it is false.  Anyway, people make gods of money.  They make gods of TV.  They make gods of our government.  All of these things are false and all will lead to a crash.  These are the lives of the people in our world who have all the money and power.  They chase falseness.

Now let’s look at our poor people.  We have nations where the people are oppressed and hungry for food.  There are millions and millions of people whose only meaning in life is to find enough food for the day.  These are the places where Christianity is the strongest.  The reason for this is that Jesus gives them hope where there should be none.  Jesus can be seen out there helping the people who need help the most.  It isn’t very often Jesus is seen in a corporate board meeting or at a jet setter yacht party.  These people think they have the world by the tail, but they don’t.  But the person who is hungry, is much more likely to see the hand of Jesus working in his life than one who has riches.  I know that when I was down and out, Jesus gave me His hand and He helped me out of my personal quagmire.

That is the hope that we have in Jesus.  If you find yourself searching for the meaning of life, then listen for the still voice of Jesus.  Confess your sins to Him and ask Him into your life.  There is no need to search.  There is no need to look because Jesus is right in front of you or right beside you.  Even if you don’t love Him yet, He still loves you tremendously.

Now we get into an area where it might be a little bit scary.  If you are searching for this meaning, what is the cost when you find it?  It is Jesus who is talking in this reading.  Therefore, He has not gone to the cross yet.  But we know that the cost Jesus paid was His life.  We have watched videos that depict the final hours.  We read about it every year during Easter.  The cost was very high for Jesus.

So, what is the cost for us?  The people who are listening to Jesus recognize the reference to living bread.  This would be the manna that God provided for Moses and the people of the Exodus.  If you remember that God provided manna so the people could make it into a type of bread.  He also provided quail so they would have meat.  In other words, God provided them with life.  They would still die eventually but for now they had life.  Now Jesus is telling the people that He is the living bread, the living manna.  If we eat of the living bread then we will live to eternity.  We will not die.  What they don’t know yet is that to have this living bread, Jesus must die on the cross.

Would anyone here today like some living bread?  My guess is that many of you have already eaten this wonderful meal.  We aren’t cannibals because this is just a figure of speech.  Now here are some of the costs we can expect if we take or don’t take the living bread.

Bobby is serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery.  Mary serving a 11-year sentence for armed robbery and will be deported at the end of the sentence.  Patricia serves a 10-year sentence for embezzlement.  Sandra is serving a life sentence for murder.  5,300 inmates are housed in the prison known as Angola in Louisiana.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that from 1,200-1,500 inmates have been born again after they were locked up.  Every person I have mentioned wished they had the living bread before they committed their crime.  These people are paying a high cost of not following Jesus.

I don’t think we pay such a high price but we do pay a price.  We can all look back on the things we did before we knew Jesus and see what our personal price has been.  It may be a bout with drugs or alcohol, a bad marriage, dabbling in things you shouldn’t, or maybe it is just a sense of searching, a sense of being lost.

But no matter what the cost has been to you, it pales in comparison to the cost of those who will continue to not know Jesus until they die.  The price they pay will be eternal damnation.  The reason I mentioned the people who had visited hell in our beginning today is because there are so many people who don’t believe in hell but still say they believe in heaven.  You must believe in hell if you believe in heaven.  I just wanted to try to demonstrate that hell is a real place and we don’t want anyone to go there.

So far, we have discovered that many are searching for God and there is a price when we accept Him or not.  I say they are searching for God because I feel that all people are supposed to be connected to Jesus.  God made all people like this and therefore all people seek God.  If we are not connected, then we are searching for what the non-believer calls the meaning of life or some other such search.  In actuality, they are searching for God and they don’t even know it.  So, when you hear someone say they are searching to find themselves, they are really searching for Jesus and they don’t even know it.

This all has to do with the last point I want to make today.  We all have a hunger for Jesus.  The free thinkers and woke people of Fargo have an acute hunger for Jesus but their brains get in the way and they look in the total opposite direction.  ¾ of the inmates in Angola prison have a hunger for Jesus but they don’t have a clue as to what this means.  The people who want to so called ‘reform’ the church so it is more like society have a great hunger for Jesus but they have lost their faith, if they ever had it.

You and I sitting here today have a hunger for Jesus.  You are so hungry that you come here every Sunday to read about Him, study Him, and listen to His Word.  Our friends and neighbors who miss our summer services will come back in a few weeks with a real hunger for Jesus.  Everyone in the world has a hunger for Jesus. I can’t make it any clearer than that.  Everyone has a hunger for Jesus!

Then the question becomes what are you going to do about this hunger?  I would like to try two things this fall and let me know what your results are.  First of all, I would like all of you to read through your Bibles in a year.  It isn’t that hard if you just commit to it.  There are Bibles that laid out so you can read through them in a year.  There are also Bible studies that might help plus there are many suggestions on the internet.  I think this would be very good for everyone as you are starting a new church.  Talk to me about this or talk to Pastor Mark about it.

The other thing I would like to try is what I call, “Love Your Neighbor.”  I would like this to be our chance to be the arms and legs of Jesus in our community.  At least once a month I would like us to choose someone or a family who is having a tough go of it, and go to minister to them.  What you do would depend on the circumstance.  I think this would be a great way to reach into our community with the love of Jesus Christ.  When we were at Calvary/Zion, we would get $1000 every month to give to the needy.  We never had money left over in this account.

I think you have a hunger in your new church.  This is also a hunger that is in your community.  I know that you are not very big but these are a couple of ways that you can help each other and others, even though you are small.  Most of the time when Jesus was ministering to others, they were small groups of people.  This is who we are.  Jesus loves us so much that He wants us to go in His name and help people to a better life.  He has got this wonderful plan for you and it is perfect in every way.  Go to Him now and go to Him often.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.