The title of this study is He Came Down from Heaven, and the text is in John chapter 6, verses 22 through 34. So far in John, in chapter 6, we looked at the prophetic Old Testament miracle of Elisha feeding the prophets. And then that was fulfilled in Jesus' feeding of the 5,000. And then that was followed where Jesus walks on the sea and fulfills Psalm 107 and Job 9.8. In the context of the psalm and Job, they are clearly about God. walks on the sea. And now to continue to demonstrate by his works and by his words that he is the sent one of God because he came down from heaven. Only God incarnate, the word made flesh, can be the fulfillment of these Old Testament images of the Sovereign Lord and Creator and make such majestic claims for Himself. Now, John alone, among the Gospel writers, gives the discourse by our Lord Himself on His being the Bread of God who comes down from Heaven. The text in John chapter 6, I'll read the verses starting at verse 22. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw, there was no other boat there except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. However, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, When did you come here?" Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. because God the Father has set his seal on him. Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Therefore they said to him, What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give 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." Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. I want to make some general observations from these verses. That is, after feeding the 5,000 and walking on the water, Matthew tells us that Jesus had made his disciples put out into the sea. The people therefore knew that he did not go with them in the boat. They were eagerly searching for him. When they saw that he was not still there, they went over to Capernaum seeking Jesus. They could not have guessed that he walked across the sea to get into the boat with his disciples. And then, calm the raging storm and bring the boat into its desired haven. Verse 25, And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them most assuredly, that's that double amen, amen, amen. I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Jesus ignores their when question and answers the why. Why they were looking for him. They were getting a free lunch. In Mark's gospel, a comparable passage, in Mark 6, verse 51, Then he went up into the boat, and the wind ceased, and they were greatly amazed in themselves, beyond measure and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. Even his disciples, after they had seen him miraculously feeding thousands, did not understand the meaning of the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. And the multitudes have a selfish motive. The word he uses, Anwer Field, refers to the kind of eating that is done by animals brute beasts. They eat without thought or thankfulness. That's a terrible picture, isn't it? They just eat it without any concept of where that came from or being thankful about it. I love to feed birds. Try to keep the bird feeders full of seed and keep the raccoons out of it. and put sugar water out for hummingbirds. I'm behind on that. I haven't followed through on that, but I usually do that. But not a single bird has ever come to me and said thank you. So they followed him to get food without working for it. because they believed he is Messiah. They completely miss the significance of his feeding the multitudes. And Jesus knows their selfish motive for following him. Have you ever heard of anyone following Christ for the wrong reason? The health and wealth false prophets on television are getting rich. deceiving the simple that want to escape their stupid choices by simply exercising what they call faith. And the religious hucksters define that faith as sending them money. 27. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him." This is kind of a riddle here. Stop working, but work. The Jews did not anymore understand the bread from heaven, than the Samaritan woman understood the living water. Jesus is not endorsing indolence. There is a damning heresy that says that when a person is, quote, saved, there's no more to do. No time for reading the Bible. Not much interest in meeting with the church. especially on Wednesday night. They won't give their money as the Lord has blessed them. But not to worry, they're saved. Now, I'm not preaching legalism. And I'm not saying that these things are necessary in order to be saved or to keep your salvation. What I'm saying, without apology or fear of contradiction, is that saved people are not careless about meeting with the church. A person who claims to be a Christian, but who is not striving to enter the kingdom, is simply deceived. Over in Luke's gospel, at chapter 13, verse 23, And he said to them, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. And then in Matthew 11, verse 12, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by storm. This is not salvation by works. But it is salvation that works. If a person believes they're saved and has no interest in the things of God, they're not interested in reading the Word of God, they're not interested in meeting with the church on any kind of regularity, then I'm afraid people like that may just be deceived. There are many who are on the broad way that leads to destruction. I've made this comment before, but there is that broad way, and hardly ever anybody recognizes that there are so many people on that broad way. But it's the truth. In this verse there is something forbidden to labor for the things that perish in the using of them. And then there is something commanded to work hard for spiritual food which will last forever. As preachers, and I know the preachers of this congregation, do not hesitate to offer salvation Full and free. The free offer of the gospel. Jesus pointed out the selfish motive, and at the same time he told them how to overcome it. Which the Son of Man will give you. That title that Jesus takes on himself, Son of Man, is from the prophet Daniel. In Daniel chapter 7 at verse 11, I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I watched in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed." In the vision that Daniel has, there are four empires. Chaldea, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And these are under the symbols of four great beasts. And then it is followed by the appearance of Christ to take dominion forever. When Jesus applies the title, or takes this title, Son of Man for himself, he is clearly claiming to be the person of Daniel's prophecy. The all-conquering Redeemer, before whom all powers, seen or unseen, must fall, whose kingdom and dominion are everlasting. And the Jews that were hearing this could not failed to have perceived the daring nature of his claim. Reinforced as it was by the miracles he had worked and as he fed the multitudes and he walked on the sea. But here is a sad commentary in verse 36. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. Here stands the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, the Ancient of Days, and still they do not believe. So I would ask, I don't have any doubt about the people in this auditorium, but this goes out over sermon audio. So I ask you, do you believe in the Christ of the Bible? The sealing of the Son, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set His seal on Him. The Son of Man was prophesied many centuries before He actually came into the world. But before there was time, in the eternal moment, in the counsel of the Holy Trinity, the Son is given a people And he will redeem them with his blood. That is the seal God the Father has set on his only begotten Son. And that is who Jesus of Nazareth is. So do you know him? The better question is, does he know you? Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent." If we must labor, tell us what kind of labor. What are the works of God? What kind? What works of God? The works of God could be all sorts of things. And over time, men have come up with many things that they say you must do to earn the favor of God. But anything added to what Jesus answered as being necessary to be saved is human merit. Jesus' answer is, one thing is needed, believe in Christ. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God. But you and I are commanded to repent and believe the gospel. Does a person want to be saved from the power of sin, the grip of sin? Then believe in Christ. Don't look for merit in what you do, in your deeds. Jesus said, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. To the Jews, their Abrahamic birth certificate was not enough. In John's Gospel, in chapter 1, verse 10, he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, those who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Their unbelief was settled. They cannot recognize the One standing before them, and they ask Him for more proof. What sign will you perform that we may see and believe you? What work will you do? There's a saying that says, seeing is believing, but the scripture says, believe and then you'll see. Show us another sign and we'll believe you. Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Amen, Amen. I say to you, Moses did not give 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. He came down from heaven. All the words of Jesus are full of meaning. To the Jew who knew the scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, Jesus was making one claim after another and demonstrating the truth of his words by his mighty works. In verse 33, Jesus makes the first of seven mentions in chapter 6 where he claims to have come down from heaven. In the Old Testament, to come down from heaven means a divine descent from the throne of all power and glory to execute some design of grace or judgment. The term is descriptive of deity in the movement of divine omnipotence and sovereign purpose. When Christ applied it to himself, he is making a supreme and absolute claim to deity. There are a number of Old Testament references to come down from heaven, and without going into detail, it would be a helpful Bible study for you to do a concordant search of the Old Testament for the phrase, or the idea anyway, and study the context of how it's used. And just to list off a few, in Genesis 11 is the judgment on Babel and the confusion of languages. It came down. In Genesis 18, it's the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Exodus 3, God sees the affliction of the Hebrews in Egypt. In Exodus 19, God gives his law. In Psalm 18, God answers a cry for deliverance. And in Malachi 3, the Lord comes to his temple. All of these in the context of coming down from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And Jesus destroyed the contrasts the Jews had drawn and presents his own. Moses was an agent who gave directions. The Father is the giver. Moses himself was neither the bread nor the type. The true bread from heaven is Jesus. The manna provided nourishment for one day. Jesus, the true bread, gives life eternal. The bread that Christ gives is himself. Christ was sent into the world on purpose and for a purpose. Christ will down a cross for sinners, he'll be buried, and after three days he will rise from the dead by his own power. But it is Christ who has the prerogative to give life. Verse 33 again, For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. They still did not understand. And that's kind of the gist of the passage. The people here, what he says, and they still are just blinded to it. John wrote this gospel a generation after the other three evangelists. I forget the exact number, but I think it was like 60 years later. And already the Lord's Supper was being abused by assigning special power to the bread and the wine. even that soon after. John writes five chapters about the events in the upper room on the final night and does not mention the institution of the Lord's Supper. The reason, I believe, is so his readers will understand the spiritual meaning of the supper. In the next study, if the Lord does not return, and by divine volition, we will take a look at how Christ saying that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood was misunderstood then, and it is still misunderstood today.