Food That Endures
John 6:22-40
October 10, 2021
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations
“After our calling, how do we provoke God? What a world of difficulties do we run through! Such temptations that, if it were possible, the elect should be deceived! It is so with all Christians. No righteous man but he is ‘scarcely saved’ and yet saved he is, because the love of God is invincible, it overcomes all difficulties.”
~Thomas Goodwin, “Riches of God’s Love to His Elect”
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
~Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Per¬haps, for many of us, all expe¬ri¬ence mere¬ly defines, so to speak, the shape of that gap where our love of God ought to be. It is not enough. It is some¬thing. If we can¬not ‘prac¬tice the pres¬ence of God’, it is some¬thing to prac¬tice the absence of God, to become increas¬ing¬ly aware of our unaware¬ness till we feel like men who should stand beside a great cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a sto¬ry who looks in a mir¬ror and finds no face there; or a man in a dream who stretch¬es out his hand to vis¬i¬ble objects and gets no sen¬sa¬tion of touch. To know that one is dream¬ing is to be no longer per¬fect¬ly asleep. But for news of the ful¬ly wak¬ing world you must go to my betters.”
~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved.”
~John Knox (c. 1514- 1572), Scottish minister, theologian, and reformer
Sermon Passage
John 6:22-40 (ESV)
22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”