So turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter six. John chapter six. As I mentioned earlier, we are in the section of John that is a long sermon of Jesus. And we are looking at this sermon verse by verse. Last week we saw that Jesus began the sermon by telling the people that God has sent the true bread from heaven, the bread that gives life to the world. The crowds asked him for bread like Moses had provided. Jesus said that Moses never provided bread, but it was God who gives bread, God who gave them the bread from heaven in the wilderness. And he said that God has given them true bread from heaven, and that he is this true bread that gives life to the world. And as we will see today, they simply needed to come and believe in him.

Jesus had told them already in verse 29 that this is the work of God, that you believe in him, that you believe in him whom he has sent. And here again in these verses today, he tells them they need to believe. But this is not surprising if you know John’s gospel well. We have been in John’s gospel for over a year now and we have repeatedly seen that belief is a major theme in John. In fact, John is the book of the Bible that speaks the most about the saving effect of believing. But interestingly, John doesn’t speak of belief in its noun form as faith or belief. He uses the verb believe. He says that you need to believe 98 times in his gospel. And one important reason why John does this is because it reveals the true nature of saving faith.

Saving faith is not something you simply obtain once and then go on with your life as it was before. It’s not a get out of jail free card or fire insurance that you just obtain and stick it in your back pocket in case of emergency and forget about it for the rest of your life. That is not what saving faith is and it’s not what saving faith looks like. Saving faith is not a thing in that sense. But as John shows us, saving faith is a verb. It is an action. And this does not simply mean that faith causes us to be active, though it does. Things like obey Jesus and love one another. Saving faith results in a life of obedience. But I think John uses the verb believe so many times because believing in its very nature is an acting. It’s a kind of action. Believing is an acting of our souls.

Over and over, John says things like in John 3, 36, he who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey The son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. That is saving faith. That is saving believing. The gospel is to be obeyed by believing. It requires the action of our hearts. Again, it’s not simply a possession that you acquire one day.

Other passages that speak like this are John 3. 15 and 16, whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. It’s a continual believing in Him.

John chapter 5 we saw, verse 24, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.

Or as we see in this sermon, in John 6, we’ll see it over and over again in this sermon, but down in verse 40, Jesus says, this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life. In verse 47, he says, he who believes has eternal life. We see it over and over again.

Even in John’s purpose statement for this gospel, he writes, so that you may believe in Jesus Christ. And that by believing, continually believing, we have life in His name.

The issue of John’s Gospel is how to have eternal life and not remain under the wrath of God. And the answer is to believe. To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And this believing, again, is not simply something that you do once, and forget about. It’s not a possession that you obtain one day when you pray a prayer or walk an aisle. It isn’t simply a moment in time when you come to agree about the facts about Jesus. This believing is a continual act of our soul, a continual trust in Him. And this is what we see in our text this morning. where Jesus explains what this belief looks like, what this believing in him is.

We’ll be focusing on a few more verses of Jesus’ sermon on the bread of life. And again, we’ve already seen that Jesus is the true bread from heaven, given by God to give life to the world, and he clarifies that he is speaking about himself in our text today. But now the question from the crowd is, how do you get this life-giving bread? How is it that we get the benefits of this bread Jesus is talking about? How is it that we get eternal life with God? And Jesus gives them the answer. And that is how we see our text this morning.

We’ll see three different elements of this conversation that turns into a sermon. First, we see the question from the crowd in verse 34. They have another question for him. Verse 35 shows us the answer. Jesus answers their question, but even after he answers the question, verse 36 shows us there is a problem. So we have the question, the answer, and the problem this morning.

So again, allow me to read our verses of John chapter six this morning. John six, verses 34 through 36. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. This is the word of the Lord.

Again, first of all, we see a question. The crowd has another question for Jesus. And this question, once again, this request that they have for him, reveals their spiritual blindness. The blindness we’ve already seen in them because they had already asked him in verses 30 and 31, what then do you do for a sign that we may see and believe in you? What work do you perform? Again, this reveals that they were blind to what he had already been doing for them and what those things were pointing to.

And once again, they have another request of Jesus. They really ask another question of him. In verse 34, Lord, always give us this bread. Why can’t you give us this bread now? We want the bread. And they continue to try to use Jesus to satisfy their physical desires, their physical needs. Jesus had just told them, once again, that the bread of God, which comes down from heaven, gives life to the world. So it should be clear that Jesus isn’t talking about actual bread. He’s using bread as a spiritual metaphor for the salvation that He can provide for them. He has come down from heaven as the Savior for the world.

But again, as Jesus already pointed out, they were still focused on filling their stomachs. So they ask Him for this bread. They’re still focused on their hunger. And they want Him to satisfy their physical needs. And sadly, this is still the case with shallow and temporary followers of Jesus today. Those who fill churches today looking for their temporal needs and desires to be met. And there are always churches that accommodate them. The places that draw the largest crowds often today. People who go to the service that best accommodates their schedules, or those who choose the church that best entertains their children. But they don’t ever commit to those churches and build their life around the church. They’ve picked the church that best meets my needs now. But when the time comes that my needs are not met the way I want anymore, well, we can just go down the street to the next church and see how that one serves my needs.

And this is the very attitude we see in these crowds. They come to Jesus for what he can do for me now, in this moment. And after this crowd insists that he proves himself once again, now they insist that they give them what they want in this bread. Versions rightly say that they address Him as Lord. Don’t understand that to say that they think they, or they’re thinking about Him as He truly is. That they’re recognizing Jesus is the Lord. This word is also just a polite way to address a man. Like we would say, sir. So even though they call Him Lord, they’re not actually recognizing Him as Lord of their life.

Jesus will make it clear in verse 36, this crowd does not truly believe in Him. These people are still focused on their temporal needs, having their physical needs met. So our first observation here in this text is their question, their request of Jesus. And next we see in verse 35, the answer that Jesus has for them. Being as gracious and merciful as Jesus is, he tells them exactly the answer that they need. Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.

They want this bread of life that he told them about, and Jesus says, I am. the bread of life. He wasn’t talking about actual bread, he was talking about himself. He is the very bread that he promised to give them. And no physical bread, in the sense they were thinking, could permanently cure their hunger. And they should have realized that since he had just given them bread the day before and yet they were hungry again, this is a different type of bread he’s talking about. And this is the first of the seven famous I am statements of Jesus. Although we did see one that is often not recognized when he was walking on the water with the disciples. But here Jesus is claiming to be the bread from heaven that gives life. Again, the very thing they actually needed.

And not only does he tell them that he’s the bread, he tells them how to gain the benefit of this bread. How do they get this life that he gives? He who comes to me will never hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. Jesus is the bread of life. But it’s the person who comes to him who does not hunger, not the person who eats of this bread, who eats him. And it’s the person who believes in him who does not thirst, not the person who drinks. Again, Jesus is clearly using a metaphor here. And we’ll come back to this idea later in the chapter when we talk about when Jesus says that they need to be eating his flesh and drinking his blood in verse 54. We’ll talk about what that means. But John 6 is often understood wrongly. And it affects some people’s view of the Lord’s Supper. which we will partake later today, but there are those who believe that taking the Lord’s Supper involves actually eating the flesh and blood of Jesus. That the bread and the juice or wine turns into the flesh and blood of Jesus as they take it. And some people believe that this belief is actually necessary for salvation. If you don’t believe that that’s what’s happening, then you’re not saved. But that is a wrong view. all the way around, both of the Lord’s Supper and of this text.

John 6 is not talking about the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper at all. And again, look at what Jesus says is the way that someone gains the benefit of this life-giving bread. It is not eating and drinking. It’s coming and believing. Coming to Him and believing in Him. Come and believe. Or you could say, repentance and faith. Coming to Him is clearly implying leaving their lives of seeking their own desires behind. And believing in Him is to trust in Him completely as who He is, the Messiah, the Son of God who came for The purpose of giving life and salvation. And to trust in Him for that salvation. That salvation only comes through Him. As you’ll see later in another I Am statement of His in John 14. Verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. He’s the only way. And you must repent and believe in Him. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. Repentance and faith go together. They must, they are inseparable. To repent is to turn from sin and to believe is to turn to Christ. You cannot do one without the other. There’s no such thing as a person who believes in Christ but never repents of sin. Someone who believes in Him but never comes to Him. There’s no such thing.

And this coming to Him is not a physical or geographical movement. That’s not what coming to Him means. If that was true, these crowds had already come to Him, physically. But He says, no, you need to come to Me. Even though they were already there. This coming to Him that Jesus is speaking of is repentance. Repenting of their sin. And coming to Him for salvation. What is moving here is the heart. The soul, the will, our affections. Those are what come to him. That’s what we see in 1 Thessalonians 1 as Paul describes the repentance he’s seen in the Thessalonians. And he’s heard of in their way of life. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9 says, for they themselves report about us. What kind of an entrance we had with you. And how do they know? And how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God. How do they know they turned to God? Because they turned from their idols. That was the evidence that they actually came to Him. That’s what it means to come and believe in Him.

So to follow Jesus’ metaphor here in his sermon, believing in Jesus in a saving way, partaking of this life-giving bread, is like eating the best food you’ve ever eaten. A food that once you eat it, you’ll never hunger again. And drinking the most satisfying water when you are desperately thirsty, and you will never thirst again. When you eat and drink of this satisfying sustenance that Jesus gives, you’ll never want anything else. Jesus is the eternally satisfying food and water, the two things we need to live. He is the food and drink we need to live forever. If your soul finds its satisfaction for your hunger and thirst in Jesus, He says you’ll never thirst, and never hunger, and never die. This is the believing that John continually speaks of in his gospel. This is the acting of faith. The acting of believing. Coming to Him. For what you truly need.

And notice the result, the implication of coming and believing in verse 35. Again, he who comes to me. Will never hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. He will never hunger and never thirst. Coming to Jesus for this type of food and drink results in eternal life and satisfaction. You will never thirst, and never hunger, and never die.

Because verse 58 of John chapter 6, as Jesus continues His sermon on what this life-giving bread does for them, Verse 58 says, this is the bread which came down out of heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died. We started with Moses and the bread that came to the children of Israel in the wilderness. And Jesus says, yeah, they’re not here anymore. The bread they ate, it didn’t save them. They died. But the bread that he provides, that Jesus gives. He who eats this bread will live forever. This was the bread they needed. Not the bread that Moses provided. The bread that Jesus provides causes you to live forever.

When you repent and come to Jesus, and you believe and trust in Him as your one and only Savior. And you continually live that life of believing and trusting. Your desires for the temporal things in life grow weaker and weaker. And your desires for more and more of Him grow stronger and stronger. And those desires are more and more satisfied in Him. That’s what the life of believing looks like. When we come to Him and repent and believe in Him, we will never hunger and never thirst because He gives us everything that we could ever need for eternal life. That is Jesus’ answer to their request. Give us this bread always. I am the bread of life. You will never hunger and never thirst if you come and believe. Come and believe. Repent and believe in Him.

But unfortunately, even though He has provided the right answer for them, that He is the bread of life, we still have a problem. We’ve seen their request, their question, we’ve seen the answer, but we still have a problem. Because in verse 36, Jesus continues and says, but I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. He’s the bread of life. He’s standing before them. And they’ve seen Him. They’ve seen what He can do. They’ve seen the signs. They’ve seen the miracle of feeding the 5,000. And yet, you do not believe. The very thing that would give you this bread of life, you refuse to do. This is the most devastating news of all. They are without excuse. They had seen Him. They failed to see the significance of His miracles. They failed to see what the signs were pointing to. And they missed the point of His teaching. Just like their fathers in the wilderness with Moses. They missed what it pointed to.

Hebrews speaks a lot of this generation in the wilderness. And why they didn’t enter into the rest that God provides. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2 tells us. For indeed we have had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. That generation in the wilderness. They had the good news proclaimed to them as well. But the word that was heard did not profit those who were not united with faith among those who heard. They didn’t believe it either. They were given the good news. It was proclaimed to them. And the reason why they didn’t enter His rest is because they didn’t believe. They didn’t believe.

Just like this generation standing before Jesus. that has the bread from heaven provided for them. They can’t get the benefit from it because they don’t believe. The miracles they had seen simply stirred up their appetite for more miracles. They were intrigued by what Jesus could do simply for the way it would make their life better. but they were not willing to believe in Him as their Messiah and their Lord.

This crowd had seen and heard God in the flesh standing before them. They had even more than Moses’ generation had, and yet they still don’t believe. They were motivated by their curiosity, by their physical appetites, by their political ambitions. Remember, they tried to seize him and make him king, because that’ll fix all of our problems. But they still refuse to believe.

And Jesus has the answer for why they don’t believe in the very next verse. But we don’t have time to cover all that today. We’re going to focus in on that next time. Why is it that they don’t believe? They’re hearing the same message that the disciples heard, the ones who do follow him, the ones who do come to him, and the ones who do believe in him. They’re hearing the same thing. They’re seeing the same thing. Why is it that they don’t believe? We’ll come to that next time.

What we’ve seen in these few verses of Jesus’ sermon is that He is the bread of life who satisfies, who gives that eternal life. And the only way, the only way to experience the benefit of Him, to experience what He gives us, He tells us to come and believe. The one who comes to me will never hunger. The one who believes in me will never thirst. It’s to come and believe. To repent of sin and come to Him. To turn away from that life of constantly seeking to fulfill my fleshly desires. To have all of my needs and wants and lusts met. Turn from that. Come to Him. The One who can truly satisfy.

And to repent of your sin is to see it for what it truly is. An infinite offense against an infinitely holy God. A crime worth an infinite punishment. Eternal death. The very opposite of what He comes to give us. And to repent is to turn from that sin and turn to Christ. and to believe and trust in Him as your only hope for salvation. To rest in His atoning work on the cross. Not to say, yeah, Jesus is my Savior, but I also need to do all of these other things. I need to continually seek to satisfy my desires. I need to continually seek to earn God’s favor and to make Him happy.

No, he’s the only savior. He’s the only one who can pay your sin penalty. There’s only two people who can pay your penalty for sin, him or you. If he doesn’t pay it for you, you’re left with that bill and he’s coming again. You need to come to Him and believe and trust that He paid it. He paid it for you. And you rest in His atoning work. You don’t need to do anything to earn salvation. Salvation has already been earned by Him. All we need to do is come and believe in Him.

And if we do, If we come and believe, we will never hunger or thirst again. He is the all-satisfying Bread of Life. And the rest of our lives after we come and believe in Him are lives of believing. We continually believe. We live our whole life showing that we believe. Everything we do is because we believe. That’s what Believing in eternal life for eternal life is believing and being fully satisfied in the bread of life given to us from heaven. We’re going to partake here in the Lord’s Supper that signifies what He provides for us, the all-satisfying bread the all-satisfying sacrifice on our behalf. Believe and be fully satisfied in Him.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this morning before we come to the Lord’s table.

Our God in heaven, We are humbled by what Christ is for us. That He came as the bread from heaven to give eternal life. That while we feel in our hearts that it’s something we must do to fix the problem that we’ve created. Lord, we see in Your Word that there’s nothing we can do. That Christ is the one who has done all that needs to be done. And that He is the one who satisfies our every need and our every desire. That when we live our lives focused on Him, believing in Him, our desires change. And He becomes what we most desire.

Lord, I pray that as we come to your table this morning that we would be reminded of what he came to give us, what he came to bring for us, and most of all, what he came to sacrifice for us in his body and his blood. Lord, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you’ve done for us in Christ. We pray this in Christ’s precious name, amen.