Jesus is My Sustainer
John 6:25-35 (ESV):
25When 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 be cause you ate your fill of the loaves.
27Do 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?
31Our 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 heav en, 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.
Many of you know that our youngest son, James, is planting a church in the West Village of New York City. The name of their church is the City Chapel. Last year, they received a special blessing from the Lord that is worth sharing with all of you this morning. When they started planting this church in 2021, my son felt it was best for them to live in the city as a family. However, as we all know, renting an apartment in the city is so expensive. Last year, knowing the lease contract for their apartment would end in December and if they renewed, their rent could go up about $500, so they decided to apply for the city's housing lottery. You see, in New York, the housing department manages several apartments that qualified residents can rent for a much lower rate. However, with so many qualified applicants, to be fair, they are doing this lottery to award their apartments. It has been said that the odds of you being picked out are quite slim be cause applications can go from 10,000 to 40,000 families every drawing. Praise God because with the fami lies they picked out last year, my son’s family was one of them! I won’t forget what Pastor James told my wife and me after they were picked out; he said, “Our God really knows how to take care of His servant.”
I say a big amen to what he said. But the reality is that God’s care is not limited to His servants but applies to all believers. For example, in the Bible, one of the special titles that is applied to God is Jehovah Jireh, which literally means “The Lord will provide.” We find this title referred to in Genesis 22:14 (ESV):
1
14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide,” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
The background of this text is God testing Abraham by asking him to offer his son,
Isaac, as a sacrifice. I know we are familiar with the story - as Abraham was about to slaughter his son as a sacrifice, the Lord stopped him and told him that he did not have to harm his son because he had already proven his love and loyalty to Him. Instead of sacrificing Isaac, the Lord then provided the ram for his sacrifice. So, Abraham called the place “The Lord will provide” or “Jehovah Jireh.”
Since we are creatures who always have so many needs, it gives us tremendous assurance to know that we have a God who promises to sustain us and provide all of our needs. I’m sure if you have walked with God for quite some time, you can surely identify with these words of King David in Psalm 37:25, saying:
25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
Fast forward to the New Testament, the very same characteristic of God being a provider or sustainer is personally claimed by Jesus Christ upon Himself. Although He uses a distinct title, the basic essence is the same. Here’s our key verse, John 6:35 – “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.” The title is found in this phrase, “I am the bread of life.” We have explored what Jesus can do for us for the past two Sundays. We learned of Him being the door and our teacher. It is also so important that we see Him as our sustainer. Remember, we are desper ate people because we always find ourselves in need. This is the main reason why we need to look to Jesus as our sustainer. Let’s examine our passage and emphasize three significant points within our text.
I THE SPECIAL PROVISION (John 6:1-13)
Prior to our main text, we find the Lord Jesus providing food for more than five thousand people. If you check out this passage, you should not miss at least verses 5-9:
5Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
The Lord Jesus, after seeing the large crowd, recognized the need to feed all of these people. So, He turned to Philip, one of His disciples, and asked him where the closest Panera Bread or bakery was so they could feed these people. Of course, with this question, we should not ignore verse 6, “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.” Clearly, Jesus was creating a crisis here because He wanted to teach His disciples a very important lesson. Take note: God loves doing this even to us today. Many of the crises we encounter are allowed by God because He can effectively teach us through them. Remember the
saying, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”
However, let’s check out Philip’s response. He immediately concluded that they
couldn’t handle it because of the amount of money they needed to feed everyone. He said the basic salary of a person for eight months to one year is not even enough to solve their problem. I remember reading one of the sermons of Pastor Adrian Rogers, and he commented that whenever there is a crisis that needs to be solved, there are three categories of people we will meet:
♦ There are the feelers – “I feel we ought to do this.” They are the ones driven by emotion.
♦ There are the figurers – “They don’t pay attention to the feelers. They just figure it out whether it could be done.
♦ They are the faithers – They just simply find out what God wants to do, and they say, “We’re going to do it.”
Now, where would you fall based on these three categories? To make the long story short, Andrew would later tell Jesus that a boy in the crowd was willing to share his food, but he only had five barley loaves of bread and two fish. Even Andrew knew that they were nothing compared to the enormous need. Amaz ingly, Jesus would take what the boy shared and multiply them to be able to feed everyone. Here are verses 11-13 describing what happened next:
11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seat ed. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.
12And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
Can you imagine, from five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus was able to feed more than five thou sand people? And He fed them until all of them were satisfied. After they had their buffet, the disciples even collected twelve baskets of leftovers.
Now, this story was not narrated without an important purpose. Jesus performed this miracle so He could use it as a foundation for His important claim of being the bread of life. If you are doubtful of Jesus's ability to provide your needs, just remember this story and allow it to instill faith in your heart.
II THE SUPERFICIAL PURSUIT (vs. 25-33)
After the great miracle of feeding more than five thousand people, those who experienced the re markable miracle wanted to exalt Jesus and make Him their King. Perceiving what was in the heart of the people, Jesus decided to leave secretly and went to the mountain alone to spend time in prayer. So, when the multitudes of people realized that Jesus was no longer with them, they all left and sought Him in Caper naum (vs. 22-24). So, in verse 25, the crowd will meet Jesus again. Let’s read verses 25-27 first:
25When 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.
27Do 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.”
If you go back to verse 26, Jesus will plainly expose the superficial pursuit of the people. Yes, the people were looking for Him not because of who He was or because they saw Him as the Messiah. They were pursuing Him because they wanted to eat the food He gave them. Evidently, they were more interest ed in meeting their immediate needs than Him. They were only concerned about meeting their physical needs and not their spiritual needs. That’s the truth He wanted to drive across with the words 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.”
How many of us are making the same mistake? Think about it. Man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. These people's superficial pursuit is to fill their physical needs by eating the food that Jesus gave them. Therefore, they wanted to make Jesus their King in Israel so He could keep providing for their physical needs.
The problem is that the physical body they want to feed will soon die and only end up being food for worms. The truth is that no matter what kind of bread you eat, you will eventually die. Then, what do you think will happen to their soul and spirit that they have neglected to feed? Their soul and spirit will go on living while being eternally separated from God. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ will receive eternal life.
The biggest challenge for all people is to recognize that if we only try to fill our physical bodies, we will never be satisfied. Why? It is because the real us is not our bodies but our soul and spirit that lives inside our bodies.
Blaise Pascal, the great physicist and philosopher, once said:
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person that can only be filled by Him.”
In other words, there is in every person’s heart a hidden hunger for a right relationship with God, and only Jesus Christ can fill that need.
Now, if you go back to the main text, specifically verses 28 – 32, Jesus will explicitly lead them to rec ognize that He alone can meet their needs. Let’s read again:
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?
31Our 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 heav en, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Notice, in verse 28, the people will ask Jesus this question, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” This means the people would like to know what they need to do for them to gain entrance to the Kingdom of God. People would always assume that it is up to them to earn their way to heaven. But Jesus would make it very clear to them in verse 29 that what they needed to do was to believe in Him whom the Father sent. However, their unbelief will cause them to seek more signs to prove that He is the Messiah, just like Moses, who gave them Manna in the Old Testament.
Because of our lack of time, allow me to summarize how Jesus will argue. Jesus will help them under stand that He was far superior to Moses and the Manna in the wilderness. First, it was not Moses who gave them Manna; it was God from heaven. Then, the Manna they received was still limited because it only sus tained their physical bodies for a while. Every day, they had to gather Manna except on Sabbath day.
Jesus was far more superior for two reasons: First, He Himself is the God from heaven who came to meet their needs. Second, what He is able to give them will sustain them forever. He clearly conveyed this in verse 33: “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
If we are after true satisfaction in this life, only one person is worth pursuing, and He is Jesus Christ! My fear is that we will consume all our time and energy in pursuing our physical needs and end up being to tally disappointed in the end because they are not enough. Jesus literally said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
III THE SUFFICIENT PERSON (vs. 34-35)
Lastly, after making the declaration that God has a better bread from heaven in verse 33, the people expressed their desire to acquire this bread, so they ask in verse 34, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Now comes the declaration of being the ultimate sustainer, who is sufficient for our satisfaction. He said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Now, bread during the time of Jesus was their main food. Everything else revolved around it. Eating bread was what gave them strength and energy; it was what sustained them. Think of Jesus in the same way. Having Him in our lives is what will give us true spiritual strength and energy. He is the One who will satisfy our deepest longings and give us true joy in life. Once we have Him, He will be enough for us – we will never be hungry again spiritually.
Obviously, since the metaphor is Him being the bread of life, you must partake of Him in order for you to benefit from Him. This partaking of Him is done by believing in Him. Jesus plainly declared in John 6:40:
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.”
Within the church, I don’t want to assume that all of you have already believed in Jesus Christ. If some still need to believe in Jesus, I hope you won’t delay because He is the only One who can give us eter nal life and guarantee our resurrection to a life of glory.
Let me also highlight the words of King David in Psalm 34:8. If there was someone who walked with
God for many years and experienced so many blessings from the Lord, it would be King David. Listen to what he said:
8Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Listen, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” It is so true; it is possible to par
take and experience the goodness of the Lord. Our lives can be so much blessed because of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life!
Personally, I’m truly grateful to have come to know Jesus Christ as my Savior. But I’m fully aware that God’s work in my life and family started with my father's salvation in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, in 1956. He was in his early 30s at that time and had really no time for God. He was always busy with his work as the ed itor for the main newspaper of the province, The Palawan Times. However, God showed His grace and mer cy to him because He allowed Henry Debris, an American Missionary, to knock on the door of their house on a Sunday afternoon and witness to Him. According to my Dad, everything that the missionary told him that day made sense, so he wholeheartedly surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. God will continue to show him goodness and allow him to surrender his life to the ministry as a pastor. I come from a big family, with seven boys and three girls. Growing up in my family, I have seen and experienced the reality of Christ’s sustaining work. He never failed to provide for our needs. Though my Dad was a pastor with little financial support, all of us, 10 kids, were able to go to school and finish college. With the 10 children, two of us became full-time pastors. And as I have shared earlier, my family already has a third-generation pastor. All glory to God! The work of grace started with my Dad, and I know Jesus will continue His sustaining work in our family through many more generations.
My prayer is that all of us will taste and see this goodness of the Lord!