This morning, as we find ourselves on the leading edge of a new semester, for some of you perhaps your first semester, for some of you perhaps your final semester, as we find ourselves at the start of this semester, this morning, are you satisfied in your family life? In your education here at seminary, as you contemplate what calling the Lord might have for you in the coming years after seminary, does life hold for you what you want it to hold? Are you content? Or is every day a sort of grasping after some fulfillment, some desire, some happiness, some idealized perfect call, some ideal circumstance that always seems to lie just beyond your reach? Just another day in the future. Are you satisfied? Well, this morning we're looking at what is the first of the rather well-known I Am sayings of Jesus. In the Gospel of John, specifically, there are seven different times that Jesus says, I Am something. And through these I Am sayings, we learn a staggering amount about who Jesus is. Now, as we know, Jesus doesn't mean these things literally. What we read here just a minute ago in John 6, Jesus says that He is the bread of life. Well, we know that Jesus isn't really bread. Jesus isn't speaking literally in that sense. But rather, Jesus is using the idea, He's using the imagery of bread to tell us something critical about who He is. These are rich sayings, these I Am sayings in John. Sayings that tell us more about this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who stands at the very center of history. In our passage this morning, Jesus tells us both something about who He is and something about what He's come to do. He tells us something in all of that about the satisfaction that all of us seek. As we find in our passage this morning, Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction to all those who believe in Him. Now, the first thing that we need to see in our passage is that Jesus Christ is the life-giving Son of God. This is the foundational reality of the entire passage. You look, for example, at what Jesus says in verses 38 through 40. Beginning in verse 38, Jesus says this, "'For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.'" There in verse 38, Jesus says that He came down from heaven. And that's the necessary beginning of our understanding of who Jesus is. From all of eternity, the Son of God has existed. He always has been. He hasn't received existence. He is the foundation of existence. And when Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the eternal Son of God was coming down from heaven. The One who had created the world was entering the world. His beginning wasn't in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He had no beginning. He had no first day. He was coming down from heaven to earth. Now, we're in the sixth chapter of John this morning. At the beginning of John, in John chapter 1, this same truth is asserted in a very memorable way. In John 1 verse 1, John is referring to Jesus as the Word, and he writes this, in John 1, 1, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." In the beginning, before the creation of all things, the Son of God was. In the beginning, He, the Word, was, and He was God. Before time itself had been created, God the Son was with God the Father, and with God the Spirit, and He, the Son, was God. As John says there in verse 1, the Son was with God, and the Son was God. And then, as John goes on to tell us in John 1 verse 14, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Son of God, who always had existed, He who always had been God, He became flesh. He took on a human nature, a human body, a full human existence. Now, of course, as we know, Jesus never sinned. There was no stain of sin or guilt upon Him. That's made clear in places like Hebrews 4, verse 15. Since Adam and Eve's first sin, all of mankind have been sinful from their first conception. But that sinfulness isn't part of their humanity. That sinfulness is a distortion of their humanity. We all this morning are sinful, not because we're human. We're sinful because we're fallen humans. When humanity, mankind, was created, God declared it good. Humanity in itself is good. It's the crown of God's creation. In and of itself, humanity is good. And the eternal Son of God took on Himself a full human existence. In our passage this morning in John 6, Jesus is speaking to this throbbing crowd of people. They've seen Him feed a large group of people with a small amount of food, and they followed Him. There's this throbbing crowd of people. And all of those people, they suppose that they're looking at a mere man, that they're looking at a man who is a great teacher, a powerful miracle worker. But these people, their eyes are gazing upon God. the eternal God become flesh, the One who not only was born, but who, in His conception, had come down from heaven. And He had come down for a reason. As Jesus says in verse 39, God the Father had given to Him a people, and God the Son had come down in order that He might keep those people, and in the last day raise those people up. The majestic weight of the gospel is bound up in that task. As I said just a moment ago, we all are sinners. We are seminary students, seminary professors, so we know this. We know we're all sinners, but we don't like to hear it. We don't like to let it sit down beside us. It's true of the people to whom we preach. But us, it's more painful to think of it. But the Bible is relentless again and again. Psalm 51, verse 5. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20. Romans 3, 23. The Scriptures relentlessly tell us that all of us are sinners. There's no man, no student, no professor who's not guilty before God. No one who's never had an impure thought and said an unkind word. And as Paul tells us in Romans 6 verse 23, the wages for that sin, what that sin justly deserves, is death. Because of our sin, we all stand under the just condemnation of God. We ought immediately to die in this world. Right here at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, our sin is so obscene that we ought to die in this world and then suffer an endless eternity of torment in the world to come. That's what our sin deserves. Our eyes are clouded. Our minds are dull. We don't see the wickedness of our sin. But sin is evil. And in the justice of the God who is infinitely and perfectly righteous, that sin deserves immediate and eternal death. But Jesus has come down from heaven in order that His people might be saved from that death. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, the apostle Paul, in a well-known passage, describes this wonderful two-way exchange. The first part of that exchange, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5.21, is that God the Father made God the Son who had known no sin to be sin for His people. all of the sin of the people of God, all of the crushing weight of their guilt, their shame, it all was placed on Jesus as He hung on Calvary's cross. Jesus was bearing, He was carrying all of the sin of all of His people, and the Father judged that sin in His Son. All of the just punishment, all of the wages of the sin of His people, the Father poured out on His Son until the debt that His people owed to the law was paid in full. In John 19, verse 30, we read that from the cross, Jesus cried out, It is finished. Justice is finished. The wages of sin have been fully suffered. The law has been satisfied. It's finished. That's the first part of this two-fold exchange. The sin of God's people is placed upon Jesus, and that sin is judged. It's judged in full there. And the second part of that exchange that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5.21 is just as glorious. Not only did the Father make the Son to be sin for His people, But also, because of what Jesus has done, God's people are made into the very righteousness of God. The righteousness, the perfect obedience that Jesus had rendered in His life is given to His people. The guilt of His people is placed upon Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus is placed upon His people so that those who belong to Jesus are forgiven. But they're not only forgiven. They haven't only had their sin taken away. They're made righteous. Righteous not because they're perfect and blameless. Righteous not because they have ginned up faith themselves. They're righteous because the perfection and the blamelessness of Jesus has been given to them. They have been given His status. You know, one time, A number of years ago, I was flying on an airline. I had a coach ticket. It's a regular ticket, but the plane was overbooked. So, by some great merciful kindness, I got bumped up to first class. I hadn't bought a first class ticket. I had absolutely no right to be in the first class cabin, but I had been given the status of a first class passenger. The status wasn't bought. It wasn't earned. It was simply given. But with it, I was a first-class passenger. I had, and I can assure you, I used access to all of the amenities, all of the privileges of first-class travel. And it's the same with the people of God. Those who ought to be counted as sinners, those who ought to stand under condemnation, They're counted as righteous. And not because they've earned that righteousness, not because they've earned that status, but because it's simply been given to them. The status that only God could earn, that only God could deserve. God, God the Son, wins and then He gives it to His people. That's the great exchange between Jesus and His people. He takes their sin and He gives them His righteousness. That's what Jesus has done for His people. He's won them. Their sin had separated them from God. Jesus has washed that sin away. It's clean. And He's given them His own righteousness. Jesus has won His people. He's purchased them with His blood. And He'll never lose them. He'll never let them slip from His hand. Until finally, He raises them up at the last day. That day when Jesus splits the skies and returns in glory and in judgment, that day when history collapses, on that day, Jesus will raise His people up. Their bodies will be resurrected. They'll be reunited with their souls. The people of God will be fully, perfectly resurrected, just as Jesus Himself is. Just as He has been raised up, so shall He raise them up. He will raise them up, as Jesus says in verse 40 of our passage, to everlasting life. life for all of eternity in the perfect presence of the Triune God, life without bounds of time, lived in the light of the presence of God Himself. Now, do you see the beautiful movement in all of this? The glorious circle that's been described. God the Son has come down in order that He might raise His people up. He's come into the presence of His people in order that He might bring His people into His own blessed presence. This is who Jesus is. This is what He wants these people in John 6 to realize. that He's not just some miracle worker. He's not just some gifted teacher. He is the one who has come down from glory. He's come down to people dead in their sin in order to purge that sin, give righteousness in its place, and then raise them up at the last day, giving to His people the perfect resurrection that He Himself enjoys. That's who Jesus is. He is the life-giving Son of God. Is that how you see Jesus this morning? Is Jesus the giver of life? Or is He an object for your study? Or an object for your employment? Is He the linchpin of the society that you've known growing up? Or a society that you fear is disappearing? Or do you believe that Jesus is who He says that He is here? He is the life-giving Son of God. He's come down from heaven above, and in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, He has won a life without bounds for His people. A life without bounds for you. This is who Jesus is. The God who has come in order to bring His people to Himself. And because that is who Jesus is, He's able to do something that no one else can. As we press forward in the passage, we see that Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction. You look at verses 26 and 27, and then at verse 35 of the passage. Beginning in verse 26, we read this, Jesus answered and said, "'Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For Him hath God the Father sealed.'" Then down in verse 35, Jesus says, "...I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." As we know, this exchange between Jesus and the crowd of people, it's happening because the day before, Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. The people had seen that miracle. They then had tracked Jesus down on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. That's how things had occurred. And in verse 26, Jesus has some very challenging words for that crowd. Jesus knows their hearts, and so He knows that they've come looking for Him because He fed them the day before. They'd been hungry. Jesus had taken that hunger away. He was almost like a meal ticket for them. Jesus says in verse 26 that they've not come because they saw the miracles, but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled. Now, that could seem a little confusing, but it's more clear when we remember what the central purpose of Jesus' miracles was. Most fundamentally, the miracles that Jesus performed, He performed in order to verify that He was who He said that He was. In the miracles, people received visible, tangible evidence that Jesus did have the power and the authority that He claimed to have. Through His miracles, Jesus was testifying that He was the Son of God. And so when Jesus says in verse 26 that the crowd enveloping Him has come because they saw His signs, His miracles, what He means is that the crowd has not come because they saw in His miracles that Jesus was God. They missed the point. They haven't stalked Jesus to the other side of the Sea of Galilee because they realized that He was God. No, they've come because they're hungry. And they wanted the man who had given them a free meal the day before to give them a free meal again. The crowd stood there surrounding Jesus, not because their eyes had been opened, but because their stomachs had been filled. Not because they'd gained faith, but because they'd lost hunger. And Jesus tells them that they're missing the grandeur of who He is. As Jesus tells them in verse 27, they're laboring, they're giving themselves, they're racing around the sea to get bread that perishes. The day before, Jesus had given them regular bread. It had removed their hunger. But they were hungry again. And so they had to look for more. And if Jesus gave it to them, then they would have to chase him down the next day to get more. The bread that they're seeking perishes. It does something, and then it's gone. And so you need more, and then you need more, and then you need more. These people are giving their lives in the pursuit of something that perishes, that will never fully satisfy. And in the deepest of ironies, they're seeking that perishing bread at the hand of the man who could give them everything. If they would only come to Him in faith rather than in hunger, if they would only seek Him rather than seeking bread, He would give them meat which endureth unto everlasting life, Jesus says. If they came for Him and not for bread, He would give them Himself, and their every need, their every lack would disappear through an eternity of ages. Look again at how Jesus puts it down in verse 35. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Every need of His people, Jesus meets. Every need, He satisfies. Now obviously we know Christians get hungry too, Christians get thirsty too, Christians have need too. It's not as if believing in Jesus means that you never have to eat, you never have to drink, that you're never in need. Of course it doesn't. Jesus is speaking here of His eternally satisfying every need of His people. He's speaking of the fullness of the blessing that He shall bring to them at the end. In Revelation 7, verse 16, the Scriptures are speaking of God's people, speaking of those who have been washed in the blood of Jesus, who've been brought into His presence forevermore. And it says of those people, in Revelation 7, verse 16, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." In the bliss of glory, in the immediate presence of God Himself, those who belong to Jesus will finally know no need, they'll know no lack, their hunger, their thirst, it'll be gone. There'll be no limitation. Only glory. Only Jesus Himself. Not an existence of chasing after this ever-disappearing supply of things that perish. Things that never really satisfy. but rather an unending existence of satisfaction in the one who takes away hunger and who takes away thirst, an unending eternity in the full glory of God's presence, where all is joy, all is bliss. Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction. Where are you seeking your satisfaction this morning? Our society offers all kinds of roads to supposed satisfaction. You can seek satisfaction through physical pleasures. You can seek it through accumulating material possessions and riches. You can seek it through popularity. You can seek satisfaction by trying to be the best father you can be, the best mother you can be, the best son or daughter you can be. You can seek satisfaction by trying to give your children everything that you think they should have. You can seek satisfaction by trying to feed every single appetite that you have or that you think you have. You can seek satisfaction by seeking to have the most impeccable of reputations. You can seek satisfaction by having the best grades in your seminary class. You can seek satisfaction by trying to preach the best sermon, or write the best book, or deliver the best lecture. But hear the Scriptures this morning. Those sources of satisfaction perish. If you seek your satisfaction in them, you'll spend this whole semester, you'll spend the rest of your life chasing something that never will satisfy. Physical pleasures will come and go. Appetites will leave you wanting more. Your own failings will render you unable to give to others all the things that you want to give to them. All of these other satisfactions perish. They don't bring satisfaction. All they bring is busyness. Busyness chased in the end with dissatisfaction and a yawning emptiness. And here's the thing, for those of us who are in seminary, in seminary, just like the people in our passage, we can even be coming to Jesus and looking for things that perish. You can be coming to seminary looking for a good reputation, or looking for a good call, or looking to appease your parents or the elders who've told you that you should be in seminary. You can come to seminary every day for an entire semester looking for something besides Jesus. You can stand beside Him on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, having sprinted the margins of the sea to reach Him, looking for something other than Him. Brothers and sisters, if you would be satisfied this morning, if you would be satisfied this semester, If you would know the deep abiding satisfaction, you have to find it in Jesus. You have to find it in the One who came down in order to bring His people to Himself. Everything else perishes. Your degrees, your exams, your papers, they all perish. Pleasures evaporate, possessions rust, they're used up, your reputation will be forgotten, your ministry will shift, your circumstances will change in a moment. It all will perish. But Jesus, the Bread of Life, brings a satisfaction that never fades. The satisfaction of knowing that there is no distance between you and God Almighty. There's no need for fear. There's no need for terror. Because the God who made all things and who will judge all things, He looks on you and He sees the righteousness of Jesus. And that righteousness will bring you into His presence forevermore. Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, brings eternal satisfaction. And He provides it to those who believe in Him. That's the last thing we need to see in our passage this morning. Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction to all those who believe in Him. In verse 27, Jesus calls the crowd to labor not for bread that will perish, but for bread that will endure. In verse 28, the crowd asks how they're to labor for that bread. In verse 29, Jesus says this, "...this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." How do you receive the eternally satisfying bread of life? How do you receive life everlasting in Jesus? through believing in His name. We don't win eternal life through good grades in seminary. You don't win eternal life through having wonderful relationships with your professors or with your students. We don't win eternal life by keeping all the right rules or by managing to keep more rules than other people keep. God's people win eternal life through faith. through believing that Jesus is the Son of God and by confessing their sin to Him in the sure confidence that He takes that sin away. Our world functions on the principle that you work and for your labor you win bread. You labor for something and you receive that which you have acquired with your labor. But brothers and sisters, you can't earn the bread of life. You can't work hard enough for it. You can't be good enough for it. The bread of life comes only by faith. It's freely given, and yet it's worth more than 10,000 worlds. It brings you cleansing from sin, covering with righteousness, peace with God. Christ alone brings satisfaction, and He brings it through an eternity that will never end. If you find yourself in seminary this morning, having never confessed your sin to Jesus, if you're following on a path that's been set before you and yet you've never begged Jesus for forgiveness and believe that He is the Son of God, you must do so today. Don't waste another breath giving yourself to things that do not and that will not satisfy. If you have professed faith in Christ, you must seek all of your satisfaction in Him. Not in the people around you, not in the possessions you have, not in the circumstances of your life. If you this morning have the bread of life, don't be foolish. And holding the bread of life in one hand, grope for satisfaction somewhere else with the other. The only true satisfaction is in Jesus. Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction to all of those who believe in Him. Now, just a little while ago, at the beginning of our time, I was talking about some pretty basic gospel truths. Things I hope and pray you've all heard thousands of times. Things about Jesus in my place, Jesus in your place, and us in His. Think back. Were you bored with it? Did you want something more? Something more seminary-esque? Did you wonder, does he realize he's preaching to seminary students? We know these things. You know, I could stand up here and I could expound on the mysteries of the hypostatic union, the extra carnum, the Trinitarian processions, the Imago Dei, and all of it's gloriously important. But in the last great day, my hope, and today my contentment, is that Jesus is mine and I am His. The Father can't look on me without seeing Him. And He can't look on Him without seeing me. That's what gives me peace. That's what makes me happy. That's what must be your meat and your drink and your joy as you're learning and growing in all of these other wonderful mysteries and truths. At the beginning of our time, I asked if you were satisfied this morning. And if we're honest, most of us will have to say, no. There are things that we want. Material possessions, life experiences, life circumstances, opportunities. There are things that we want that we don't have. We're not really satisfied. And all of our lives are driven, they're defined by our pursuit of those things. Things that oftentimes, just as we're about to grasp them, slip away. But our passage tells us where true, unending satisfaction lies. It lies in Jesus. Not in things that perish, but in the Son of God, the One who died in order to redeem His people and to bring them to Himself. The God who didn't just give His people stuff, who didn't just give His people information, who didn't just give His people rules, but who gave them Himself. True satisfaction lies in Jesus and in believing in Him. Don't spend this semester getting a lot of information and not getting Jesus. Jesus Christ, the life-giving Son of God, provides eternal satisfaction to all of those who believe in Him. Brothers and sisters, my great prayer this morning is that all of us, this night, would go to bed satisfied. Satisfied with the satisfaction that we'll endure even when the mountains have crumbled into the sea. The satisfaction of peace with God through the blood of Jesus. No fear, no nagging conscience, no hypocrisy, just peace. Then, in that peace, you will be equipped as a good minister of the gospel. Find your satisfaction this morning and always in Jesus. As Jesus Himself says in verse 35, "...he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." May all of us come to Jesus and find in Him this satisfaction that dwarfs all the ages. Amen. Let's pray. Our great God and Father in heaven, we do this morning give Thee thanks for the semester that lies ahead of us. We're thankful, Lord, that Thou hast given unto Thy people truth, that Thou hast revealed Thyself with such glory and such intricacy that we are able to study and to learn, led by Thy Spirit, for an endless age. And we're thankful for the opportunity to be here at seminary. We're thankful for the opportunity, the blessed privilege of being involved in the work of Thy church. We're thankful, Lord, for all of the wondrous blessings and opportunities that Thou has given to us. But Lord, we're most thankful this morning for Jesus, that He hath come down in order to wash away the sin of His people, and in order to give them His righteousness, that in that last great day they all might be raised up with Him. And Lord, we pray that Thou wouldst be with us through this day and through the semester that lies ahead of us, through our entire lifetimes that lie ahead of us. We ask, O Lord, that Thou wouldst grow us in wisdom and in knowledge and in understanding, that Thou wouldst grow us in holiness and fruitfulness. That we pray, O Lord, that above all that Thou wouldst draw us ever nearer to Christ, that Thou wouldst make us to love Him all the more, and to find what we know to be in Him, unending joy and satisfaction, a satisfaction that shall know no end. We ask, O Lord, that Thou wouldst keep us fixed upon Christ, not for our glory, but for the glory of Him who hath come down from heaven to redeem His people to Himself. Do these things, we pray, for we ask them in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.