Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

Intro

Anytime I have plans to go to the movies, I starve myself all day.

I starve myself because I love movie theatre popcorn.

Like, I love it.

It’s my favorite snack, and when I go to the movies, it becomes my favorite meal.

I refuse to eat all day, and when I get to the theatre, i purchase my ticket, and i go straight to the counter and order a large popcorn and a large coke.

Some theatres will take the popcorn and they’ll layer it with butter.

So, they’ll take the bucket, fill it up halfway, then pour butter on it and shake it around.

Then, they’ll put a little more popcorn in, then more butter, and this repeats until its full and evenly layered, ensuring that every single bite has the perfect amount of butter to popcorn ratio.

Now sadly, some theatres, don’t do this.

So, I always ask if I can do it myself, and this makes the cashier mad, because now he or she has to wait, but I have to do it.

I have to make sure that I have the perfect butter to popcorn ratio.

Except, I never get the ratio right.

I either put too little butter, or I put way too much butter.

I’ve briefly shared this story before, but one time, I really put too much butter.

Like, way too much.

Like at the bottom of the bucket was a thick pool of leftover butter.

But it tasted so good.

So, I’m watching this movie, and I’m eating my overly buttered popcorn, and I finish it, and I’m driving home from the theatre, and I start feeling like trash.

I’m like, this is weird, I’ve never felt like this before.

And my eyes start to get heavy, and I’m like, I think I’m going to pass out… So I pull over on the side of the highway, and my breathing is heavy, and I’m pretty sure at some point my blood stopped pumping because it was so full of butter.

At this point, I’m thinking “Okay, where did I go wrong?”

After having not eaten all day, I was starving, but instead of filling myself up with something that would provide my body with nutrients to satisfy me for a long period of time, I filled myself up with buttered popcorn, which has little to no nutritional value, and while it was satisfying for a brief moment, I was ultimately left unfilled.

But, being unfilled, or being unsatisfied doesn’t just apply to us physically, it applies to us emotionally, relationally, and spiritually too, and while its important for our physical needs to be met, Jesus offers to fill more than that.

So, turn with me to John Chapter 6:22-40.

Read Passage

Thanks be to God

Today we’re going to begin a sermon series on the 7 I AM statements found in John’s Gospel.

So, I am the bread of life’; ‘I am the light of the world’, ‘I am the door/gate of the sheep’; ‘I am the good shepherd’; ‘I am the resurrection and the life’; ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’, and ‘I am the true vine’.

Each of these 7 statements indicates in some way that Jesus is making God present in the here and now.

In the Old Testament, God identifies himself in as “I AM who I AM.”

And so in these sayings, Jesus is saying that he too is “I AM who I AM.”

And in these seven statements, Jesus elaborates on the “I AM,” explaining to us that ultimately it is he who we need.

as “I AM who I AM

I don’t usually title my sermons.

I’m just really bad at it.

But, for fun, I put at the top of my notes the title “Let’s get this bread.”

And so, in this first statement, Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life.

Now, when I think of bread, I think these rolls my mom bakes for thanksgiving dinner.

They’re these little dinner roles, and she’ll make like 40 of them, and they’re just meant to be a side.

So, I’ll grab like four, and after I finish my meal, I’ll take them and I’ll soak up all of the grease and juice and stuff from dinner, and I’ll eat the rolls.

And they have the perfect combination of buttery, and salty, and sweet.

All that to say, that when I think of bread, this is what I think of.

For me, it’s just an addition to the already huge meal that I have.

For me, and for most of us, bread is a special treat that we add to our meal.

We might miss it if it weren’t there, but we could live without.

In contrast, in the Mediterranean culture of Jesus’ day, bread was the basic and most important part of the diet.

If you had bread and water, you had a meal.

Add to that some wine, fish or meat, and a little bit of cheese, then you basically had a feast.

So, when Jesus says “I AM the bread of life,” he’s not saying “I’m a plate of dinner rolls you can add to your already massive meal,” rather, he’s saying “I’m what you need to survive.”

Jesus is saying that he is the only one who can truly nourish us in this life.

Old Testament Background

A lot of what Jesus does throughout the Gospels is he reinterprets or relives events that happened in Israel’s history.

As y’all probably know, the Bible contains an Old Testament and a New Testament.

The Old Testament tells us the story of Israel, God’s chosen people.

When Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, the Jewish people who were listening to him would have instantly remembered the story of Moses feeding the Israelites in the wilderness with bread.

So, it’s not surprising that in verse 31 someone says “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread to eat.’”

This quote comes from the Old Testament book, Exodus.

Jesus’ response is interesting.

He says, “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.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Now, obviously the Jews are interested in this bread.

And they respond “Sir, give us this bread always.”

But, they’re fixated on literal bread.

They’re focused on the materialistic things they think Jesus is offering them.

And this makes sense.

Literary Background

Right before this passage, Jesus had literally just miraculously fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

So, the crowd is like, “yo, this guy fed us yesterday, let’s go back and get another free meal.”

So, as we just read, they load up in their boats, and they seek after Jesus.

Now, what we didn’t read this morning was the few verses right before this, and they explain that Jesus left the crowd because they wanted to make him a king.

Because Jesus fed them, they wanted to make him their king.

They were willing to follow him as long as their stomach were filled.

And even though Jesus met their physical need, this wasn’t his primary purpose for coming into the world.

As I said in the beginning of this, Jesus wants to fill more than our physical needs.

And so, when the crowd finds Jesus, and they’re like “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus goes in.

He says “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

Jesus knows they’re only seeking him because their stomachs have been filled.

Don’t work for the food that perishes

And here’s our first kind of application point.

A lot of us only seek Jesus because we think he will meet our physical, materialistic needs and wants.

Now, it’s true, Jesus loves his people and he does sometimes bless us with material things.

People needed bread to live, and so he gave them bread.

But, as I’ve said a few times, he meets so much more than that.

All of the materialistic things we seek after will perish, and so Jesus warns the Jews, and he’s warning us in verse 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...” And so many of us are working so hard towards things that will perish.

You have academic goals, career goals, life goals that you’re working so hard towards, and some of you are praying, “Jesus, please give me these things that I need,” and here Jesus is saying, “what you need is me.”

The things all of you are working so hard towards are important, and it’s okay to be working towards these goals, but you can’t seek after these things hoping that they’ll fill you up.

You can’t seek after success hoping that it’s going to satisfy you.

All things perish.

All of the things we work towards in this life perish.

And so Jesus says, “work towards the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”

Work for the Food that Endures

In response to this, the crowd asks “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

And Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

And this next part is kind of comical, they respond by saying, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform?” Now, as I said earlier, Jesus literally Just fed 5,000 people miraculously.

That was the sign.

They completely ignore the sign Jesus just did.