What do you want from Jesus?

I become acutely aware that my time spent in singing worship songs as I prepare myself for my special one on one time with my Lord – is in danger of becoming a mechanical repetition, a rote – while my mind is really not focused on actually meeting my Lord one on one.

” How hard it may seem for you to keep your focus on Me and My loving communication with you. But, this is in the nature of the human condition, surrounded by spiritual forces dragging your attention away from Me. And touching the deep core of sin which remains in each one of my children even when they have been redeemed and set free. However, even as you became aware of the danger of a mechanical repetition – it was Me calling you back to My side where you can experience My real love – even though I am not physically present. Remember though, every person who loves you and expresses that in My name is acting on My behalf.“

Let us turn now again to John’s telling of the story of Jesus. We are looking at chapter 6:25-34. The setting, just to remind you is the feeding of the 5000 and the subsequent walk by Jesus on the water as He moved to the other side of the lake. In short order we have seen two amazing miraculous signs. In verse 25 we now see that the crowd has followed Jesus and found him again.

In verses 26 and 27 Jesus puts his finger on a subject which should resonate universally. The question is, “Why was the crowd so eager to follow Jesus”? That is perhaps the same question everybody who prays to him should ask themselves, including us. Jesus points out to the crowd that the reason they are following him is because of the bread that he had produced. What he was meaning is they were following him for what they could get out of him. Many, many people who pray to Jesus simply see him as someone who will respond to their needs, without recognising that what he desires is something far greater.

In verse 27 Jesus points out to them that the miracle was a physical representation of what he wants to do spiritually for them and for us. His aim, as he puts it, is that they should have “food that endures to eternal life which only the Son of Man, (Jesus) can give them”.

Then comes the key statement which governs the whole of our relationship with him. When the people ask him what work they must do (presumably to attain eternal life), Jesus replies the only work that they need to do is to have faith in God. That is really the key to the whole of the gospel. As hard as it must have been for them it is perhaps universally true that mankind in general finds it difficult to appreciate the full extent of God’s grace. Our whole relationship with him is governed by the concept of grace. There is no work, nothing that we can do to enable us to receive this huge gift of eternal life. As much as we would like to believe that we in someway can contribute to it, it remains a free gift and any attempt by us to earn it totally nullifies its amazing value. All we need to do is to receive it by faith.

This was true for those people following after Jesus then, but it is equally true for each one of us. Even though we may have received this gift, there is always the possibility that when we do anything of value for the Kingdom, we may think that in some way what we have done has earned us something more of God’s love and attention. The true secret of living the gospel life is understanding this important aspect of God’s grace. He loves us to the maximum and nothing we can do will make him love us more.

In verse 32 we see Jesus taking this teaching one step further. He has been revealing up to now that the bread miracle has a deeper spiritual meaning representing the spiritual food that God wants to give the people. In verse 32 Jesus reveals that in fact the spiritual food comes from His Father and in vs 33 is actually embodied in him personally, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives His life to the world”. This introduces the next part of his discussion which we will look at next week.

Friends, these are amazing truths that are expressed in this section. We are probably familiar with these concepts but it is possible that they lose their impact over time. So this passage brought me to reconsider my time with and approach to Jesus and my loving service for him, which is a gift which he has given to me and I should be careful to not have the wrong attitude towards it.

Lovely chatting to you all again this afternoon. May the Lord bless you until we meet again next week.