A Far Greater Moses – John 6 Introduction part 2

Good morning, we come to our second sermon in our series of the Gospel of john In the 6th chapter And this like last week will be an introduction to Chapter six. Chapter 6 is so full. It is so it is so pregnant with with information about the mission and the identity of Jesus, that we will spend a number of weeks in this chapter and even the introduction, I could not get done in just one week. Now remember that we are looking at john and primarily in john, we are looking at and looking for the identity of and the mission of christ. And then behind that, below that is our new identity in christ and what our mission is now. One of the ways to teach that is by comparison. And as we see in in in all the gospels really is you have this comparison between the exodus of moses and the exodus of Jesus. Jesus is the second adam and he is the greater moses offering a greater freedom and a greater destination. Now, last week, in our introduction, we talked about proper worship, Chapter five was all about improper worship. And now we’re moving into Chapter six, looking at proper worship and and the value of it. And and in this chapter and as we saw last week, we are to value spiritual provisions over material provisions, Jesus says in chapter six, verse number 27 do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give you for on him God, The father has placed his seal of approval And in Chapter six, you have that great story of Jesus feeding the 5000 men and we do not know how many additional women and Children, but we do know they were there because of the little boy’s lunch. And as jesus here is breaking bread and feeding the people, their minds would immediately go back to to moses providing the manna in the wilderness. In fact, they tell Jesus that in this chapter that moses provided for 40 years and jesus of course corrects them and says it was not moses but my father. But here we’re going to look at, we’re going to look at mana as it were because that is going to be the big kicker. The great theological uh point of this chapter that that great theological understanding that is found in this chapter has to do with jesus saying that I am the bread of life and you must eat my flesh and drink my blood in order to enter into the kingdom, Jesus says in chapter six verse number 35 I am the bread of life. Now when we look at the old testament and we look at the idea of manna, Manna simply means, what is it? The word man? That means, what is it? And you remember the people would walk out each morning and they would get their provisions for the day, but they did not know exactly what it was. So they named it mana. And in this chapter we find the definition or the answer to that question. What is it right? It is a it is a picture of the coming christ. It is a picture of what he will do and what he will provide for us. Now you remember that our introduction to the gospel of John last year was what was looking through um about 15 chapters in the book of Exodus. And one of those that we looked at was exodus. Chapter 32 when when moses is on the mountain and the people worship horribly down in the valley. And you remember that that that they asked Aaron to make them an idol that they might worship God properly. And so they were trying to worship the proper god. But but in a despicable way. And so moses, or or excuse me, Aaron collected the gold and made a golden calf and moses comes down And at the instruction of God exodus. Chapter 32 # 20 says he took the calf that they had made. He burned it with fire, grounded into powder, scattered it in the water and made the people of Israel drink it. And of course it would have made them sick. It would have it would have uh provided all of those complications that we looked at last year. And in a in a very real way God was saying, you are what you eat, you are idolaters. Therefore you will eat this idol. And I will show you what the outcome of your idolatry is when you drink this heavy metal. You will have problems for days, maybe even weeks. According to the medical professionals and all of that. That uh we looked at last year. I can’t preach that sermon again. But you remember it hopefully. And you are what you eat, what you desire. As your provision is what you will become. We become like what we worship. And so they drink the golden calf. And God says, this is the result of your idolatry. You are idolaters. You you you drink the idol and then you have this great gastro intestinal problems as well as the headaches and all of that that would follow. Now going back and looking a little at one other point in moses exodus. You will remember that the call of Abraham in chapter 12 verse number two was and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. So that you will be a blessing. Abraham has also brought up in this chapter. And so we want to, we want to to to remind ourselves of of the ministry of Abraham and God said, I will make you a great nation. And you will become a blessing. But Abraham never saw that. He never saw that come to pass. In fact, by the time we get to the end of genesis, the nation of Israel is in occupied Egypt. And and not only in occupied Egypt. They are they are slaves within that country. And then because they never they never fulfill the purpose of their calling right? I’ll make you a blessing that you will be a blessing. They are constantly throughout the old testament under the occupation of other nations. At the end of gen at the end of genesis, they are slaves in Egypt and other nations occupy their land. Now move on from Abraham to moses in chapter eight of exodus verse number one. Then the Lord said to moses go to pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. Thus says the Lord, let my people go that they might serve me. And you will remember that after all of the plagues and and and and after all of that great drama that is laid out for us there in the book of exodus, that the people do not serve God. They are served by God in the Manner, but they do not serve God with their worship. Let my people go that they might worship me. And what God hears for 40 years from the people are grumblings and moaning and complaining. They are not worshiping him. And from an earthly point of view, moses would have had to have had to have thought that his ministry was fully miserable. He had a congregation of maybe two million people and he had two faithful congregates Caleb and Joshua. Everyone else was without faith, everyone else was grumbling and moaning and complaining. Even his sister and his brother so moses had such a a hard and a difficult ministry. Now, with that in mind, let’s let’s go back to john and in john chapter five verse number 39 you remember that Jesus says, you search the scriptures because you think in them, you have eternal life and it is these that bear witness of me. So the story of Abraham and the story of moses and and the giving of manna and the moving to the promised land and being brought out of captivity into freedom, all of that in the old testament pictured christ, chapter four verse number 11. But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become into become to him a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. Chapter four verse number 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him, not people who mumble and groan and complain and and and only give a modified thankfulness when God gives them something but true worshipers and then he tells the disciples in that great chapter I have food to eat that you do not know about. So jesus said in chapter four, God is seeking true worshipers. In chapter five we see, we see improper worship and now we come to chapter six and he has told the people to hunger and thirst after righteousness. And and now Jesus has come to let his people go to to to bring his people out of captivity that they might truly worship him. Now, I know this is a big introduction this morning, but we had that that big break from john, so I just want to make sure we remember everything. In Chapter two, Jesus rejects those who are wanting to get, he tells them that Christianity is all about giving. In chapter three, he says, I I know that that that that is not common to to your nature, longing to give rather than to receive. So, in Chapter three, he says, I will give you a new start a new life in a new kingdom, But I must bring you out of captivity because you are condemned already. Chapter three. And then in Chapter four, he says that he is the water of life. This new life that he promises in Chapter three now will become a changed life, fully satisfied with the restoration and the strength that is provided by the water of life that they might be useful in this new kingdom. In this kingdom of God. In Chapter five, Jesus talks about himself being the judge. He says, I am, who I say I am and he says moses wrote of me in that chapter that I am greater moses was the shadow and I am the reality that he was trying to picture. And so we are moving from shadow to reality. Now in Chapter six again, we’re not gonna get to this this week. All introduction In this chapter, Jesus Feeds the 6000 people and then he separates himself from those same people because they want to force him to be king. And then you remember what the next story is. Hopefully you’ve been reading along, he sends his disciples across the lake, a storm comes up and jesus walks on the water and then when he gets to the boat, they are immediately on the other side, chapter six verse number 20 but he said to them, it is, I do not be afraid, this is when he is walking to them on the water and they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land into which they were going. Now keep that in mind and look now at verse number 27 that was 21. Now look at verse number 27 he’s telling the people who have come around the lake do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the son of man gives you or will give you for on him. The father has set his seal now move down three more verses and look at verse number 31. Our fathers, they respond ate manna in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat, and jesus said them truly truly, I say to you, it was not moses that gave you bread from heaven, but my father gives you true bread from heaven, for the bread of God, is he who comes down from heaven and gives his life to the world? Now move on to verse number 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and who he who believes in me shall never thirst absolute spiritual satisfaction. But I say to you, you have seen me and yet you do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, for I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but that of the father. 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 that last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son of man and believes in him should have eternal life and be raised on that last day. Everyone who looks on the son of man again, you remember that that that imagery from the old testament when the people were being bitten by the snakes because of their grumbling and complaining and lack of worship and moses put a bronze serpent on a pole and anyone who looked at it was healed. And so now jesus is saying, God gave the bread in the old testament through moses, but that was a shadow. I am the true bread that’s come down from heaven and I will be that bread by giving my life for you. And it will be a, a far greater reality than when moses put the bronze serpent on the pole and the people were healed, healed physically from their disease. Now look first number 40. So the jews grumble that hill, You see the men are exactly the same. That’s why he said in Chapter three, we must be born again. The jews grumbled at him because he said, I am the bread that’s come down from heaven. They don’t want that. They, you know, they want a firehouse sub, they want another fish sandwich with a garlic bread side they said is not this, jesus, the son of joseph, whose father and mother we know, How does he say I come down from heaven. And jesus answered them, do not grumble amongst yourselves, That’s what ruined your fathers and your fathers fathers don’t be, don’t be worried about my earthly uh parents, I come down from the true father as the true bread. Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t grumble amongst yourselves Verse 48 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and what happened to him, they died. That mana was not for for for eternal life, it was for daily life. This is the bread that comes down from heaven. So that one may eat of it and not die. I am a different manner. I I am a far greater manner. I am what mana was, what I was picturing, what is it? It’s me And it doesn’t just last a day. It lasts forever. I am the living bread verse number 51, I am the living bread that’s come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give him for the life of the world is my flesh. You see what I want you to see in this introduction is that jesus is a far far greater moses moses. When he was bringing the people across the, the water, he walked on dry ground, he never got the people to the promised land. They they ate bread daily and it rotted if they kept it, Jesus walks on the water. He promises the people that he will get them home simply by believing. And he is the bread that once eaten lasts forever moses. Put a snake on a pole to keep the people from dying because of their dissatisfaction and grumbling. And jesus said I myself will give my life for you, not that you might not that you might be revived physically from from from one incident in your life, but that you will be saved completely and made new a new life, a new start in a new kingdom moses at the end of this book dies and was buried. And you remember satan and the angel fought over his bones, Jesus died, was buried, But rose again on the 3rd day, moses prayed and and and and offered kingdom prayer for for the people when they had sinned so greatly and God was going to destroy them, he offered his life for theirs, but he was unworthy. So God told him to build a Tabernacle. That was a picture of the worthy one who was coming, jesus Verse # 52. The jews disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give his flesh to eat? You see, they’re still thinking only physically and so jesus said to them truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. That’s what we’re gonna look at next week, right, that’s a really big e for the jews. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up in the last day. Now, jesus, of course, is not talking about cannibalism here. He’s talking about the fulfillment of the shadow from the old testament that he is the provision come from God to to do what moses did in picture and didn’t accomplish. He is going to do in reality and bring it to absolute fulfillment. He says in verse number 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him, Going back to exodus 32 verse number 20 and he took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, grounded into powder, scattered it in the water and made the people of Israel drink it. That was the water that made them sick. He is the water that that that that brings life Verse # 66 After this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, Do you also want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know That you are the Holy one of God moses could not bring the unbelieving people into the land, But two did go in because they believed the words of God. You see as we look at Chapter six, we’re gonna see some amazing things, jesus feeding 5,010,012,000. How many were there? But just one small lunch? He says, listen, I want you to know this physical provision that I’m giving you right now is to cause you to hunger for the spiritual provisions that I am bringing? I’m the true bread. I’m the true drink. And then he says something that would totally blow the mind of any jew, eat my flesh and drink my blood. You remember the jews were works Presley forbidden of drinking the blood? Why? And and how does that change here? Because you remember God was not satisfied with the blood of bulls and goats. You are in effect what you eat and you’re not animals. I don’t want you to be animals, Unthinking animals, who only react and respond to physical stimuli. But now that my son is here now that my son has offered his life for you, that he would abide in you. You become what you eat right now. You eat his flesh and you drink his blood, that you can be like him. He will abide in you and you will abide in him. And it all comes down to just what Peter says at the end of that chapter. Where else are we gonna go? You alone have the words of eternal life. And once we believe we’ve come to know That you are the Holy one of God. This is our hope. This is our help. This is the key to eternal life. It is the key to abundant life. It is the key to proper life in this world to have our eyes open, that we might see, to have our ears open, that we might hear, and that we might believe, and in believing be made new. What are you hoping in today? What is your greatest desire? Your physical needs being met for a day or your spiritual needs for a lifetime Father? I thank you.