The title of this today is one job because it's really simple, but yet it's the hardest thing that I found for people to understand. As Christians, as followers of Christ, we have one job and that's it. We'll talk about that here in a second. But where we're going to today is out of John 6.
It's a little bit of scripture. We're going to run verse 22 down through verse 40. Let's go ahead and read this. Sorry, in verse 22 it says, on the following day when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea, saw that there was no other boat there except that one which is the cycles had entered and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone.
However, the other boats came from Tiberius near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they also got into the boats and came to Caprion seeking Jesus. I know I pronounced that wrong. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?
Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which parishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set his seal on him. 28th, then he said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? Now listen to this, Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent.
Therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform? Then we may see it and believe you. What work will you do? Our Father's eighth manna in the desert as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father 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. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that my Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will buy no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
This is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone, I say that again, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Amen.
Let's go ahead and pray for this message. Father God, we come to you with just an open heart that cries Abba, God, we thank you for the opportunity today. We thank you for the blessings that you just continually pour out on us, God, even though that we do not deserve them. God, the anointing that you've placed on top of all of us to preach your gospel.
God, we thank you for the scriptures that you give us. We thank you that your Son died for us. God, what we ask today is that your Spirit speak here, that the words that you have written for us, God, become alive to us and we take them into our heart and carry them with us in our day, Father God, and allow us to see what it is that you want us to see. Each one of us to understand it in the way that you need us to understand it, God, but most assuredly, just let us, let us be loved by your Spirit as you always do.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. So the first couple of verses of this is really just setting the scenery.
If you don't know John 6, it's the chapter where Jesus feeds the 5,000 and then he sends his disciples away. And he fed the 5,000 with two loaves and five fish. You know, he took them, put them to where it's happening, blessed them and broke them and they all ate till they was full. Directly after that, the disciples are sent away.
Jesus goes up on the Mount and he is praying and the site of the storm happens. Jesus comes out and walks on water, Peter tells the boat, walks on water. Jesus picks him up, sets him back in the boat and they go on to the shoreline. And that first part says on the following day.
So I want you to remember is we're going through this, that this is less than 24 hours after this, this miracle of defeating of 5,000. So it plays and the 5,000 was actually more than that because there was women and children there also. So that gives us the setting of verse 22, 23 and then 24 it says us, it says that they when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capriam seeking Jesus. So you have the people that were at the 5,000 feeding seeking to move towards Jesus to find where he was in their life.
And verse 25, it says, and when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? So I want you to know that these are the same people that come over and they're asking Jesus a question right now. When did you come here? Not God.
We thank you that we found you. God, we just we just want to travel with you. We want to be one of your disciples. They're asking when did you come here?
Why? And I love how how Jesus answers this because he knows that their heart was wrong in the reason that they were coming to him. Jesus answers them says 26 Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but you ate of the loaves and were filled. They were seeking Jesus for selfish motivations, what they could get out of him.
They saw the sign of the 5000 fed and Fred said it last week that the sign points to something greater. And we need to remember that that when the miraculous happens in your life, when things are perfect and it's a blessing, we need to remember that that is pointing to something greater. And that greater is Jesus, that greater is God. But I just loved it that Jesus doesn't give them an answer to their question.
He gives them a response and he's trying to get them to realize on their own. Hey, your heart needs adjusted and God will do this for you. A lot of times we'll be asking God questions and we're asking either in the wrong motive or in the wrong way. So we don't get a direct answer to our question, which most of us see.
We don't want the beat around the bush answer. We want like a direct. Hey, you're supposed to do this or this is why this happened. And that's kind of what Jesus is showing us here.
But he actually encourages them with this. It's not that Jesus rebukes them all your wrong. He's not he's not rebuking them and all your wrong. I need you to go away or that.
But he answers them in a way to get their heart to shift, but then he encourages them. And first 27 says, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the son of man will give you because God the father has set his seal on him. So it's a three part statement of don't labor for the very things that will perish away. Don't chase after the things of the world.
Chase after what will last forever. All the things of the world, all the food of the world, the cars and clothes and all that kind of stuff and businesses, all that kind of stuff. It will perish away with you when you don't get a lot of the quote if you don't see a U hall behind the hearts. You don't get to take that stuff with you.
You chase after the very thing that will last forever where you will spend eternity and Jesus is trying to get them to see this. I love how he ends that he says, because God the father has set the his seal on him. The very thing that will last forever is sealed. It is good.
I was talking Fred yesterday and we got to talking about MREs and MREs are our military meals that last forever. I love them. We won't get into that. The jesus amazing, but I was forced to eat them for some time.
So I adapted to it. But the thing is is they are vacuum sealed. They can't go back. There's there's not an expiration there.
And that's that's what Jesus is trying to explain to them right now. He's trying to tell them that what I'm telling you about is good forever. Whenever you want to open it up and you want to take a bite of it, it's there for you. It is good.
But then he said, excuse me, verse 28, then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God. Listen, the people back then were just as bullheaded and stubborn as we are today. And even though Jesus was was giving them an answer, they they were still looking at everything in the physical form instead of the spiritual form. And you know, we're told that we will have a spiritual eye and that is the way we need to start looking at things.
So I'm looking for things in the reality of this world and start looking at it in the eternity of God. But it says that we may work the works. They are thinking just like a lot of people. We have to we have to do it one job at a time, but it has to be many jobs for us to receive what it is that you're telling us about.
I have to do A, B and C to be able to get I have to dress a certain way. I have to I have to wash my hands a certain way. They're still falling under this legalistic law view that has been taught to them. And Jesus is truly trying to break that and all of us today at some point time we put together our little Christian checklist of we got to go to church on Sunday.
I've got to care every my Bible a certain way. I've got to put my little tabs in it to make it look like I'm reading the thing. I've got to say my I've got to say my prayers at the beginning of my meal and that kind of thing. Listen, I want you guys to really understand.
Take your Christian checklist and throw it out the window because you have one job. And again, Jesus answers their their question again. He says, Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work. Say it again.
This is the work of God. That you believe in him, boom, he sent the whole title is messages right here. You have one job. There is one thing to check off on your Christian checklist, be leaf in the one who was sent.
That is what you need to do. And notice that that Jesus they said in the last verse works multiple plural things. Jesus requested them with work. One thing that you have to do believe in him whom he sent.
And again, the people then did the exact same thing that we do today. And they, well, I can't receive what you're saying. I don't understand what you're saying. You didn't give me a direct answer to what I'm saying.
So I mean, they reply to him and says, therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our father's eighth man in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
What sign will you perform then? That's what was there at the beginning. And as we read the scripture that these are the same people who just seen the miraculous take place. Believe me, I was I was there at one point in time of God.
I just need to sign. I just need to show me God. Give me the miracle. Let them miraculous happen.
And this is why I'll follow you. This is why I believe in you. This is why I'll do what I'm going to do now that I look back on that. God had already operated multiple miracles inside of my life that showed me many signs.
And I promise you, I promise you that if you take a look at your life, there has been many, many, many places that God has intervened in your life. And if you can't find them for yourself for your own personal life, you just seen one take place. You just seen the miraculous happen. You took a man who was a hardcore drug addict and had no hope in life to a gospel preacher.
Then it says, it says, what work will you do? Now, the good, the good thing about this question that they're asking him right now is we already know the answer to that. He's going to take a brutal beating. He's going to have nails pierced through him.
He's going to hang on across until death. He's going to go into a grave. He's going to raise out of that grave. Now, Jesus knows that this timeframe that this is going to happen to him, but these people already stubborn, bullheaded and that imagine if he'd have tried to tell them, well, here's the work that I'm going to do for you.
He'd probably lost his followers right there that he had. So the good thing is we know the answer to that, but I wish I could have been a piece of Jesus's brain at that time to get what he was thinking when they were asking him this question because it just makes me weep that Jesus had to be at the point of like, if you only knew what I was going to do for you, what I'm about to do for you. And we get today to say, we know what you did for us. So, let's talk about the manna.
And this was, I believe it's in Exodus. I don't know the exact chapter right off the top of my head, but it says the Father's eight man in the desert as he was written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. So this was a continual bread. This was a bread that fell every day for them.
God gave them the nourishment they needed while they was in exile being led by Moses. They needed fed while they was in the desert and God rained manna down upon them. Says then Jesus said, Mr. Surely I say to you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven where the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
I want to, I want to be very clear on this. The Israelites had to eat bread every day to survive. You and I have to eat bread once to survive. God was giving them a sign then of the bread that was rained down that would sustain their life.
Jesus is now telling us that I am the bread that will sustain your life. You come to me in belief, eat of me one time and I will give you everlasting life. And again, they're very good. They can't understand it because he said that he said that the one that comes down the next verse they say to him, then they said to him, verse 34, Lord, give us this bread always.
Give us this bread always. If they would have just understood the multiple times that he was trying to explain it of this bread is here, I am this bread. And this is really where Jesus gets fed up with it because now he puts it in plain English for them. Well, I'm sure it was Sabruk and that back then it's English for us now.
And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. He tried to get them to examine their own heart and to understand in their own way multiple times trying to explain it to them. But then he puts it plain and simple for them.
I am the bread that I'm speaking of. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. He was again referring to them to the bread for the Israelites of they had to have it multiple times. You get to have it here once.
You can think of he said the same thing to the woman at the well. She said, give me this water, which is really what the Israelites are saying to him right now, the that are there. I am the bread. Again, Jesus is telling us that we don't need a checklist.
You have one job in this, but we still have the problem that that these people had because they replied to him, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. There's a lot of us that sit here that have seen him and still do not believe. There's a lot of us that have our checklist category that that we're thinking we have to check off. I want to I want to just really encourage you guys with all is it takes his belief.
That's all it takes is belief. Your work does not come before the belief. Your work will come with the belief. I was going to say, yet you have not yet you do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me.
I will buy no means passed out. I want you to understand this at the beginning. Why did they come to him? They came to him because of the miracle that have been performed.
They wanted more of that. I came to God because I was a lost broken drug addict that didn't have anything else. You may have came to God because of the fact that he was born into a family who had a loving mother and father that were believers and you was raised inside of it. The reasoning that you come to God, the reasoning that you seek Jesus being very clear.
That doesn't matter. Says by no means will I cast them out. However you come to Christ is how he'll receive you. I just heard a quote that says, you don't get cleaned up to get in the shower, do you?
No, you get cleaned up after you get in the shower. And as I was thinking about that phrase this morning, I think about when I'm doing a bigger dirt job or mulch job and I come home and I'm completely filth covered. I don't hop right in the water. I'm right back out and I'm perfect.
It takes time. It's a process to get all the dirt off. So I want to encourage you guys that are sitting here that you don't have bad. I was you don't know how bad it is right now.
Well, I still have this sin in my life. I still got this going on. I still got that going on. I can't start following Christ or I can't stay with Christ because of these things that's going on.
Stop it. Stop it. You've got one job to believe in Christ. And he'll take care of the rest.
Now, listen, you don't come to God. You don't follow Jesus because of those things that he does for you. You come to him because of your belief that you are a sinner and that you need a savior. And the rest just comes along with it.
My son is an MP in Germany right now with the army. I was talking yesterday and he could all the things that he's doing as an MP. He could have done those before he was in the military, but does that make him a military police officer? No.
Listen, you can't care for your Bible. You can dress your Sunday best. You can, you can say all the Christianese topics and you can quote scripture. You can lay hands on people.
You can make yourself look as good as church as you want. That does not give you eternal life. It's not the building. It's the heart.
I feel like there's somebody just needs to hear again. It's you can be everything you want to be on the external. But if it's not an internal, it is of no benefit to you. Once you guys have stopped worrying about you're not good enough.
Because I promise you this, none of us are good enough. I'm a horrible person. In the sight of the glory of God, I'm a horrible person. It is only by his saving grace.
It is only by his love that I get to participate in the things that I do. Verse 38 says, right, come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Why did Jesus do what he did?
It was the Father's will. I understand that part. But did he do it because he wanted to become a son? Or did he do it because he was a son?
Know who you are in Christ. Then you will know what you're to do. You know, Fred said about this business that I'm trying to sort up, which I know is going to be completed to completion one day. That says, it will give you all the desires of your heart.
He wouldn't give me this before I came to him. It's always been a desire of my heart. He wouldn't give me this before I came to him. Once you have the heart of Christ, once you have received your belief, it begins to give you the desires of your heart, don't forget where they come from.
It's not by my strength. It's by his. He says, I have come down from heaven. He's reassuring them again of the one who comes down from heaven is the bread of life, the eternal life, not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
The last two verses says, this is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the sun and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So there's a part of the other says that of all he has given me. This brings up a lot of controversy sometimes of predestination.
How do I know that God called me? First off, Jesus died for everyone. That's the simple answer. But here's what I want you to think of.
If you were questioning in any way whether you're called or not, say the word God, everybody say the word God. If you can speak the word God God is called you. If there's ever been a small little tugging at your heart of I need something better, that's God pulling at you. If anybody's ever prophesied over you, you know, your surroundings, evilness cannot be in the presence of him.
So just you being around Godly people says that you have a calling on your life to be a part of it. I want you to see that all of the things that said this is the will of my Father. All of these are good things. But it says that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life.
It does not say he who dressed his best and believes in me. He who's prayed 13 times at the altar and believes in me. He who's never committed adultery. He who wasn't a drug addict.
He who wasn't a thief. No, it says he who believes in me has everlasting life. I just want to reassure you guys that you will never be good enough to receive it. But that's his gracious love.
That is the will of the Father that everyone comes to him.