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Welcome everybody that's tuning in online. It's great to see you here that are live and it's my privilege to share the Word of God. I want to speak to you today about spiritual life, real life, eternal life, life with God. And if you've been following some of the messages that I've had, I've been going through the ministry of Christ and I've been looking at the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And particularly, I'll be looking at significant sites in Israel where powerful events and profound teaching took place. Now, last time that we were together that I spoke, we looked at John chapter five and we looked at a place that was called the pool of Bethesda. There was a man there who was paralyzed for 38 years and he lay on a bed in complete brokenness and helplessness waiting for healing. And Jesus walked up to him and he healed his body.
He raised him, I told him to take up his bed and walk. But more than that, he taught him to turn away from sin and he taught him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in that event, I think we could see the Lord Jesus as the spiritual healer of humanity. Well, today I want to take you to the synagogue in Capernaum and I want you to hear.
Yeah, I want you to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in this passage that we're going to look at, Jesus said the words that I speak unto you are spirit. They are life. What is that?
What he was really saying is these are the inspired words of God. The words that I speak unto are spirit. They are life. And so I want to invite you to turn your Bibles please to John chapter six and we're going to start reading at verse 35.
We're going to read the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter six and verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me or whoever comes to me shall never hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. All but the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me. If you drop down to verse 47, Jesus said, Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that came down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now just finally verse 59. You'll see where Jesus spoke these words.
Here's the setting. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. I want to speak to you today about spiritual life, life from God. Jesus identified a very basic concept that affects all humanity and that is hunger and thirst.
It affects all humanity. I've got a couple of slides that I think are probably going to come up here in a second. Jesus said I am the bread of life. John chapter 6.
That's really what we're going to talk about today. I want to take you to the shores of Galilee. And here there's a couple of pictures up here that will give you a little bit of the setting. Capernaum is a small town in the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee.
And I don't know if you can see it. These pictures it was a little bit of a foggy day, but in the very far left hand corner is the town Capernaum right here. And in this picture I'm sitting at the top of Mount Arbel. There's a mountain that overlooks the entire Sea of Galilee and it's just an amazing sight to stand on the top of that mountain and see all the northern shore and the northern part of Israel.
And one thing that's interesting about this mount is that we read in the Gospels that Jesus went up into a mountain to pray. It's likely this mountain right here because there's no other mountain around there. And from that very spot Jesus prayed for his disciples that were in the middle of that sea. Capernaum is a very significant sight in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
On this slide here you'll see at the entrance to the synagogue the town of Jesus, Capernaum. In Israel today they call it Capernaum. So when I was over there pronouncing Capernaum nobody knew what I was talking about. It's Capernaum.
And at that sight there's a history of the synagogue and a depiction of what the synagogue would have looked like in first century times. This is where Jesus taught in the synagogue. And from this site he taught incredibly profound words that I want to share with you today. This is what the ancient remains of the synagogue looks like today.
And when you go as a tourist you can walk right into these sites and you can go into what is remaining from the synagogue in Capernaum. And it's just so amazing to be there, to open the Bible, to read the scriptures and to understand that from this very physical sight that still exists on planet earth today Jesus taught profound words. Absolutely profound words. There is quite a number of events that you read about in the scripture that actually happened in Capernaum.
The first event that you read about is in Matthew chapter 8 of verse 8 when the centurion, this Roman officer in the military, he came to Jesus and he said, my servant is sick and at the point of death please heal him. And Jesus said, okay I will come down to your house. And the centurion said no. You don't need to come down to my house.
Just speak the word only and my servant will be healed. And Jesus was amazed. He said, I have not found such great faith. No, not even in Israel.
Here is a Roman and he says, just speak the word Lord and it will happen. Amazing faith. You also get the event in Matthew 17 and verse 24, Jesus is in the house and he's teaching the multitudes. And it appears that somebody walks in and knocks on the door and Peter answers the door and he says, does your master pay taxes?
It's time to pay your tax due. And Jesus is teaching and Peter says to the Lord what should we do? And the Lord says, Peter, go down to the shore, cast a hook in and the very first fish that comes up will have a coin in his mouth. Take the coin and go pay the tax.
Peter walks out, cast his hook in, the fish comes up. There's a coin in his mouth. And Jesus provided for the tax money to be paid. That actually happened in Capernaum.
You can read about it in Matthew 17. The healing of Peter's mother in law. When you go to Capernaum today, not only is there the remains of the synagogue, but there's also the remains of Peter's house. And Peter's house was right beside the synagogue.
And there was an event that happened when Jesus goes into the house and Peter's mother-in-law is sick and she's got a fever. And Jesus goes up to her and he raises her up and he heals Peter's mother-in-law. One of the, probably the most renowned stories that you'll remember about Capernaum is found in Mark 1 and verse 29. Sorry, Mark 2 and verse 1 where these men are carrying this paralyzed man and he's on a stretcher and they lower him down because they couldn't even get inside the house.
The house was just packed with people. And so they uncovered the tiles and they lowered this man down right in front of Jesus and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven. Get up and walk. And they were absolutely amazed and said, who can forgive sins but God only?
And Jesus said that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. This happened in Capernaum. But there came a day when closer to the end of Jesus ministry, Jesus pronounced woes on the town of Capernaum. Why was that?
Because it was a place that witnessed the mighty miracles of God and yet many people in that town still did not believe on him. And so Jesus pronounced woes to Capernaum because they were privileged to witness the mighty works of God and yet they had not repented or believed. But one of the greatest expositions that we get of spiritual truth that the Lord Jesus taught comes from the synagogue in Capernaum and it's what we read about in John chapter 6. And really that's what I want to share with you today.
The teaching that Jesus gave on spiritual life. I am the bread of life. You know what Jesus identified is a very basic condition that affects all humanity. It affects us all today.
And you know no one is exempt from this basic human condition. It affects all people, all nationalities, all civilizations, all times. It's the hunger of the soul. There is something basic about every single one of us that is hungering for something of lasting satisfaction.
In my travels I picked up a book that I read and it was amazing. It was a great book. It was written by a woman that does woman ministries and her name is Sheila Walsh. And the title of the book is The Longing in Me.
This woman, you may never have heard of her but if you look her up online you'll see a lot about her life. She's an international speaker. She goes all over the world and she has her ministry that's based in Texas and California. And she talks about in this book she's very, very candid about the challenges that she experienced in her life.
On the outside she looks like she's got it all together. She's got fortune. She's made a lot of money. She's popular.
And yet in that book she describes the longing of her soul. And throughout her life here's what she experienced. She experienced the collapse of a marriage. She was divorced.
And her life in that part of her area, it actually ended with a lot of hurt and a lot of pain. And she eventually separated from that relationship. Farther on in her life she experienced deep depression. And she found herself in an institution not able to even function with day to day living.
Farther on in her life she went bankrupt. And this money that she had earned she basically had lost everything. And through all of this she catalogs the journey of her life in saying this. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can satisfy other than knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior and having heaven as your home and knowing Jesus as the bread of life.
It's an amazing book. It's called The Longing in Me. Let me further illustrate the hunger of the soul. The story has been told about these two little boys that were walking home from school one day.
And they were in grade school. And these two little boys walked along main street on the way home. And they walked by this pawn shop. You know what a pawn shop is.
And in the windows of this pawn shop was this beautiful trombone case. It had nice shiny leather on the outside. And it had all these grooves, nooks and crannies. It was long and kind of narrow.
And on the inside it had this shiny red velvet. And the little boy he stood in the window and he looked at that trombone case. And he said, wow, I wonder what it's for. So he saved up his allowance.
And on the weekend he went in and he bought that trombone case. And he took it out and he thought this is such a beautiful case. I wonder what it's for. So he decided to go fishing.
And so he took his fishing tackle and all his hooks and he put them in the grooves and it just didn't fit. And then he thought, you know, it's probably not for that. You know what? It's probably like something I could put my clothes in.
So he wrapped up all his clothes and he couldn't even close the case. And the clothes were sticking out and nothing seemed to fit. And he said, you know what? I'm so proud of this case.
I'm gonna put my lunch in it. And so his mother packed him the lunch. He took his lunch out of his paper bag and he put it in this trombone case and he smashed it up, closed it up and he took his trombone case to school. And he opened it up and all the kids were laughing at him like, what are you doing?
And at the end, he's walking home and he said, this case is useless. I can't do anything with it. Nothing seems to fit. I've tried everything to put in it.
So he goes back to the pawn shop owner and he said, sir, I don't want this case. Nothing fits in it. Can you give him a money buy? And the store owner says, sure, okay.
He gives him his money buy and the kid leaves. The next day, he's walking home from school along Main Street and he goes by the pawn shop and in the window is that trombone case and there's a trombone in it. And his beautiful brass shiny golden trombone and every groove and nook and cranny fit together. And he stood there and looked at it and said, that's what this case was made for.
It was made for a trombone and it works. The point of my story is this. There is a God-sized vacuum in every human heart. And the only thing that fits, that will satisfy the longings of the human heart and soul is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you know him, you have satisfaction. You have longing that is filled and it fits and it works because every human heart and soul was made to worship God and to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And that's the story that kind of illustrates that truth. A God-sized vacuum.
I want to speak to you today about the hunger of the soul and the need that we all have for spiritual life. You know, there is satisfaction and security found alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Something that the Lord pointed out about the hunger of the soul, he said, everyone who comes to me will never hunger and will never thirst. Well, you might say, I know Jesus Christ and I still hunger and I thirst.
You know what the reason is? Because sometimes we're looking at the wrong things. Sometimes even as Christians, we're focused on trying to fill our heart with the wrong stuff. Just like that little boy who tried to put his lunch in the trombone case.
It doesn't work. Sometimes we're following after short-term things that won't satisfy the soul. And the only thing that can truly satisfy the heart and soul is the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I will tell you from my own travels that not only have I experienced this in my own heart, I have seen this on the streets, in our ministry.
I have seen this in airports. I have seen it in boardrooms of corporate America. I have sat in boardrooms with multi-millionaires that are never satisfied. Greed, prestige, power, fame.
Something is driving people to get more. It's the lust for things, the lust of pleasure. It's the lust of prestige. There is something that drives every human heart to be satisfied.
And nothing except the Lord Jesus Christ can satisfy the longing of the human soul. A number of months ago, I was in Vancouver and I was there for a weekend and I went out giving out some tracks and I walked down East Pender and East Hastings. And it's just so heartbreaking to see the drags of humanity that have been brought down because of sin and addictions. You know, I can tell you about every single one of those people?
I've actually sat down and talked to them. Here's what I can tell you. They are never satisfied. Never.
The next fix, the next drink, those that are involved in a life of sexual immorality, they're never satisfied. Those who are addicted to pornography, they're never satisfied. They just keep going deeper and farther and farther and farther and nothing satisfies them. Here's what I can tell you today.
Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Him that comes to me will never hunger. And the one who believes in me will never thirst, but they will have the satisfaction of their own soul filled. I want to share with you what a physical life versus a spiritual life with God looks like.
Please pay attention to this slide. What I've tried to do is articulate a contrast between what is normal, human, physical life without God or spiritual life with God, just like the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching from the synagogue in Capernaum. So everyone of us here have physical life, obviously. But here's what the Bible says about the condition that we were born in.
And that if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're presently living in this condition. You are dead spiritually. And that's a really confusing term to a lot of people. What does it mean to be dead spiritually?
It means to be dead in sins and trespasses before God. It means to have no conscious awareness of a life with God. It means to just be walking according to the course of humanity. Everyone who has never come to the Lord Jesus Christ is dead spiritually.
But if you have come and believed on the Lord Jesus as your Savior and put your faith and trust in Him, you have been made alive, alive spiritually. So it says in Ephesians 2 and 1, you who were dead have been made alive. You have come to life. You have come to an awareness of a relationship with God, a true meaning in life.
Physical life, you're dead spiritually. Spiritual life with God is to be made alive. Physical life unfortunately is to be addicted to sin, is to walk in darkness. And in Ephesians 2 and verse 2, it says that all of us had our behavior, our manner of life, walking according to the course of this world, driven by the lust of the flesh, driven by the pride of life, driven by the sinful nature that is part of every one of our core beings, disobedient, controlled by the enemy of our souls, the God of this age.
And if you have never come to the Lord Jesus and never accepted Him as your personal Savior and put your faith and trust in Him, you're addicted to sin and you're walking in darkness. But if you have come to know Him, repent of your sin, actually change your thinking and say, I want to turn away from sin and I want to follow God and I want to surrender my life to God. You've not only been made alive, but you have experienced what we read about this morning in Psalm 103, the blessings of God, the forgiveness of sin, the healing of the brokenness in my life, the fact that my sins have been removed from me. Every person that has life with God enjoys the love of God personally and their soul and they are walking in light, verse John 1 and 7.
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. You know, if you only have physical life, you have a guilty conscience and it's maybe buried somewhere down deep inside of you. But if you're honest enough, you have a guilty conscience because the Bible says you are condemned already. That's a very serious condition to be in, condemned already.
John chapter 3 and verse 18 says, everyone who does not believe on the Son of God is condemned already. But if you have trusted Christ, you're on the other side of this. You have been justified. Do you know what it means to be justified?
It's a term that's used in the court of law. You have been declared righteous. Your sins are removed from you. There is no more condemnation.
This is the art of celebration. There is no more condemnation because we've been given life, spiritual life with God. We've been justified. First, our John 5 and 24, Jesus said these words, truly, truly I say unto you, the one who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has ever lasting life and shall not come into judgment but is passed from death unto life.
What a contrast. Everyone here in this room has either got just physical life or you have spiritual life. You know, if all you have is physical life, then I want to tell you the cold, hard facts. You're going to face physical death with no hope.
If all you have is physical, temporary life, you're going to die and you're going to face death with no hope. You know, sin is an awful thing. But one man sin came into the world and death came because of sin. Bible says, the wages of sin is death.
James 1 and verse 15 says, every one of us are drawn away of our own lust. And when lust conceives, it brings forth death. Sin. And when sin is finished, brings death.
And if all you have is physical life, then you really have no hope beyond the grave. But if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior rejoiced today, absolutely rejoiced, you will face physical death if the Lord doesn't come in your lifetime. You will face physical death. But out of that, the sting has been removed.
The torment of what lies beyond is removed. And you will face physical death with hope in Christ Jesus. You will face physical death knowing that there will be resurrection. Here's what Jesus said in John 11 and 25.
I love it. I am the resurrection and the life. Everyone who believes in me shall never die. The one who lives and believes in me will not die.
What does that mean? It means you won't face the eternal punishment of life without God, but you will pass from death unto life. And death for a believer is just the entrance into an abundant eternity. Life with Christ, spiritual life.
And you might say, wow, that's pretty bad. Does it get any worse? Unfortunately, it does. This is something that we don't talk about very much.
And I want to share it because it came up in one of our discussions at a prayer meeting the other week. You know, for everyone who has not saved, who has never repented other sins and has never trusted in Jesus Christ as a personal Savior. After physical death, there is eternal death. There is the second death.
And you can read about this in Revelation chapter 20. God revealed to John what happens at the very end when people die on their sins without Christ. I saw the dead, small and great all men standing before God. And the books were open.
What books? Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they will judge men in the last day. The words that we have read and that we read when we open the Bible are the words that are going to judge men in the last day. The books will be opened.
And whoever's name is not written in the Lamb's book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. It's a pretty serious thing. But if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will never face that.
You have eternal life. You have everlasting joy in heaven forever. The psalmist said in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy, life ever lasting. Look at this chart and let me tell you that there's a lot at stake here.
There's a lot at stake. What kind of a life would you rather have? Just physical life? Or would you have to have spiritual life with God?
Phenomenal. And everyone here who has believed in Jesus Christ will never face the punishment of their sin. It is cleared from all guilt, has a life with God and is satisfied. Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
He that comes to me will never hunger. He that comes to me and believes on me will never thirst. What is the teaching of Jesus Christ about the afterlife? Because as we go through the gospels and as my burden is to share with you the teaching of Jesus Christ, Jesus actually taught a lot about the afterlife.
What did he say? Well, look at Matthew and verse 28, Jesus said these words, in the context of discipleship and giving your life for Christ. He said to his disciples, fear not those who can kill the body and that's all they can do. But rather fear him who is able to destroy the body and the soul in hell.
This is reality. That if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, not only are you going to face physical death without hope, you're going to end up in hell. This is reality. This is solemn.
Jesus taught John chapter 5 that all that are in the graves, all that are dead, everyone that has died is going to be raised. He said, marble not that I say unto you, all that are in the graves will hear his voice and they will be raised. There's some that are going to be raised unto the resurrection of life and there's some that are going to be raised unto the resurrection of damnation. What does that mean?
It means destruction. One of the words that John writes all through his gospel is the word perish. Do you know what that word means? It's not the loss of being.
It is the loss and condition of well being. What does the Bible teach? It is so solemn. I can hardly even say it to you.
But I believe that the Bible teaches conscious existence of torment forever in hell and the lake of fire to every person who dies in their sins and never repents or comes to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. That's what Jesus taught. In Matthew chapter 25 we have the depiction of the judgment of the living nations. It's the end times.
Jesus comes and he sets up his throne and he will judge on the earth. In the very last verse of that chapter he separates those that are going to go into eternal punishment and those that are going to go into life eternal and joy with God. He says on that verse, these shall go away into eternal punishment but the righteous unto life eternal. There is a massive contrast between just having temporary life, physical life and knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior and having spiritual life with God.
There is a massive, massive contrast and it's taught very clearly in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me share with you a couple of verses where the Lord Jesus depicts what life with God is like. John chapter 1 and verse 4, in him is life and the life was the light of men. John 3 and 36, he that believes on the sun has everlasting life.
He that does not believe the sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 28, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. That is a beautiful, beautiful truth. The Bible teaches eternal security.
They will never perish. John 17 and verse 3, Jesus said in his prayer, this is life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. In John chapter 20 and verse 30, John gave us the reason that he wrote this book. He said, there are many things that Jesus did that are not recorded in this book but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and believing that you might have life, life, spiritual life.
Can I ask you something? Do you have life, spiritual life with God, connection, sins forgiven, abundant life, eternal life, folks, this is the only way to go through life. This is first-class living, rolling through life, knowing your sins are forgiven, knowing you have eternal security, satisfaction in your soul, peace with God, knowing your sins are forgiven and there is nothing but joy and worship and everlasting blessing ahead of you eternally. There's nothing better than knowing life with God.
So I'm going to take you through one last slide. The Lord Jesus is the source of life. Physical life, spiritual life, eternal life. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say this.
There is no life without Jesus Christ. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. But Jesus gives life and light that are the qualities of God and he shares them with all who respond to him in accepting him as their Savior.
God imparts spiritual and eternal life to every person who believes on him and takes him as their personal Savior. Light in the Bible refers to truth, holiness, purity, something that doesn't come natural to any one of us. But he imparts it to us. He gives it to us.
Darkness refers to error, immorality, satanic influence, and all that opposed God. And so the Bible only speaks of light or darkness. There's nothing in between. And so when you come to accept Jesus as your Savior and believe on him as the bread of life, you have brought out of darkness.
Colossians 1, out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of the Son of his love. And God offers this as a free gift. He says, I am the bread of life. Everyone that comes to him will have the satisfaction of their soul.
They will have the security of belonging to him. And so this is my last slide. Spiritual life, satisfaction, and security in Jesus Christ. If you believe on him as your personal Savior, put your faith and trust in him.
You have eternal life. You have experienced the partaking of the bread of life. I want to tell you that there's a reason that this is all possible. It's because of Calvary.
It's because of the cross. And Jesus taught in this passage that he came to give his flesh for the life of the world. You know, there are seven times in that passage that it says, I came down from heaven. That's an important point.
It's called incarnation. It is God, who is eternal, stepped into humanity and actually became a man. Jesus of Nazareth didn't begin at Bethlehem. We read this morning before Abraham was, I am.
Jesus is eternal. And he became God incarnate. And he gave his life on the cross of Calvary. He was crucified.
And God almighty took the sins of the entire world, including you, your sins, my sins. He knew them all. Jesus bore them on the tree. God who knew them, laid them on him and believing I am free.
He offers the incredible gift. Yes, it's a gift. It's not earned. It's a gift.
He offers the incredible gift of justification to be stamped by God, declared righteous, absolutely free of sin and free of condemnation. That gives you lasting joy, satisfaction for your soul to everyone who comes to him. He gives eternal life. He gives eternal security.
He gives eternal love to all who believe in him. So let me ask you a question. Do you know him? You know, we have that beautiful little card.
We give it out every weekend. And it just says, do you know him? You know that this is really the crux of life, knowing Jesus Christ. He's light that stepped into darkness.
He humbled himself. He took upon himself our sin. He was made as a substitution for humanity. That's right.
That word is, he took my place, bearing sin and bearing shame and scoffing rude. In my place, condemned he stood. And on the cross, he bore my burden of sin and yours. He died the just one who never sinned for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
My question is, have you experienced it? Do you know him? You know what the Bible says? Oh, taste and see.
The Lord is good. Taste and see the Lord is good. This is much deeper than a physical taste. This is a spiritual taste.
Jesus said to the woman at Samaria, if you knew the gift of God. And if you knew living water, you would ask of him. He would give you to drink and your soul would be satisfied. Do you know him?
Have you experienced personal salvation? Has your soul been satisfied? Jesus said, everyone who comes to me will never hunger. And everyone who believes in me will never thirst.
I hope that that's your experience today. I'm going to pray. And then I'd really like to sing one last song. Light of the world, you step down into darkness.
That's what we're going to sing. So let's pray. Father, we thank you today for the time that we can spend listening to the Word of God. Lord, we marvel at your grace.
We were sinners, separated from God, filthy and helpless. And yet, Lord, we thank you that you came. And the Lord Jesus came into the world to save us. He became the bread of life.
He gave his life for the life of the world. And Lord, we thank you that many of us here have come to know him and experience him. And I just pray that as we wrap this up today, if there's any that hear this message and have not come to know the Lord, I just pray that you would work with them with your Holy Spirit and give them a taste of living water that they would come to know the Lord Jesus as a personal Savior. And so we ask you to bless us as we separate and wrap this up today.
We thank you for this time together and ask your blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.