Now if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's Word before Bentley comes to preach. We don't stand out of empty tradition. We stand because this is God's Word and we want to honor Him. Now I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 and then I'm going to skip ahead to verses 26 through 34. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Now in verse 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. 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. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent. So they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, 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. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Father, we thank you for the chance to feed on your word. And we realize in feeding on your word, we're feeding on the bread of life. This one that came down from heaven. And we thank you for this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, I was worried last night. But I became less worried as she listened to my sermon. Kathy, you know what I'm talking about. Sandy listening to my sermons. She offers times to do that. And it's always tough because you're up here the next day and you're thinking, she's heard this before. It's gonna be tough for her to stay awake. Well, I shouldn't have worried so much. And I will admit it was past her bewitching hour when I laid my sermon notes down on a little counter in our bedroom and she propped herself up on a few pillows. Isaac, that was my first worry, propping yourself up on a few pillows at 9.30 last night. And so if you were to ask her about my sermon, at least on the first point, she might come up with a couple things she remembers. By the second point, she might just say, I think it was about Jesus. And by the third point, I'm just confident it'll be all fresh material for her. And I know she's well-rested to listen to me. This is a sermon that brings about some familiar stories. And I want to couch it in this approach as I've looked at this John chapter 6 and been thinking about it for a few weeks, a story that has to do with feeding 5,000 people and Jesus walking on the water and then talking about the bread of life. And I remember this time when we were on a road trip and it was a few weeks later that I realized that you can travel down the same road but see things very differently. And I learned this when we had given our daughter Ellie, she's 22 now and I think she was just a little kid, had one of those disposable cameras. And somehow or another when we went to develop it a few weeks later, we realized she had taken a few pictures from her little car seat at the way back of our minivan. And when we developed those pictures, it showed me how different the same road looks depending on your vantage point. looking out the teeny little dark window that's on the side where you basically can't see anything or just seeing a bunch of heads in front of you and barely seeing anything of the road ahead. And I think it's a little bit of what I found interesting as I studied this book of John and realizing John has a different vantage point than the other gospel writers. And that weighs in on this story because the story of the 5,000 is the only miracle story, at least significant miracle story, that's told in all four Gospels. And Jesus walking on the water is told in three out of four. Only Luke leaves it out. And so to see John's vantage point and what he emphasizes and the details he brings out holds some value for us. Because John is writing perhaps 50 years after the events, maybe around AD 80, many of the experts say. And others had already written their accounts, Matthew and Mark and Luke. And when you write 50 years later, there's two reasons that the story might be told a little differently. One is that the story is older. That doesn't mean the facts are changed, but the story is older. It's been told and what has risen to the surface of what's really is the significant details has endured. And the other thing that's older is you. At 80 or 90 years old, you emphasize and you think about things differently than when you're 20. It's not a matter of right and wrong as much as a different perspective. And so it's not surprising that though all of them get the shopping cart right, five loaves and the other two fish are in there, all four Gospels emphasize that. It's only Luke that says he looked in Philip's eyes and says, Philip, where are we gonna get bread? And it says to test him. And it's only in John that he emphasizes when we went across the water, we were about three to four miles into the five mile journey to get back to Capernaum when Jesus met us. And it's only John that talks about the safe arrival on the other side, we'll get to that. And of course it's only John that having told the story of the 5,000, the next day brings out this long teaching, this long discourse that happened in this synagogue at Capernaum, where Jesus says, yesterday I fed you bread, physical bread, today I'm gonna feed you spiritual bread, for I am the bread of life. So I want to approach this chapter in John and say, let's make sure that we take advantage of the vantage point of an older man looking back now half a century perhaps on a stories that he was right there to witness. It begins in the start of chapter six with Jesus feeding bread to 5,000 men. It's often said, probably a crowd of 15 to 20,000 people. Yeah, the women and children there, a big crowd. And I want to look right at the first two verses here and see something that John brings out right from the start. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. The other gospel writers don't include that emphasis of why they were there. I don't know how many times John told that story over the last 50 years since it happened. I suspect many a time. But somewhere along the way, I'm not sure where, but somewhere along the way, he began to tell the story and began to let his audience know this crowd was following Jesus because of the signs they were seeing. Because John would look back all those years later and realize how many people follow for just a short time. John will look back perhaps with the aspect of discouragement that even happens in later life when you realize there is more rocky soil than I wish there were. John looks back and says, they were there to see the miracle worker. Most of them that was as deep as their motivation went. So this chapter right from the start hits hard on motivation and following Jesus. And Jesus is gonna continue that even when he talks about the bread of life and accuses them of, you're only here for, because I fed you yesterday. The feeding of the 5,000 is one that has some great lessons, just great lessons on just what Jesus can do with just a little and multiply it. And I'm gonna trust that that's something that many of you have heard and many of you hold on to. But I want to take an opportunity because John gives special attention, gives several verses to the interaction with Philip. I want to make that a point of emphasis in this beginning section of chapter six. We see how this happens, and I'm gonna start with verse five, this interaction with Philip and what follows. Again, Philip, one of the disciples, been following Jesus for a little while now, one of the earlier disciples. Begin looking at verse five. Lifting up his eyes, Jesus is the one who's lifting up his eyes, he sees a large crowd was coming toward him and Jesus said to Philip, where are we going to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to Philip to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a boy here with five barley loaves, two fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. And there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. We don't know a great deal about Philip, but I think just in this short little account and Philip's presumably rather quick response, we do get some insight into the man. Insight that I think at least some of us here can resonate with. We get insight into someone who is practical. And we get insight into someone who is perhaps thinking ahead and calculating, what do we do with the resources we have? But I think in the context here, when it says that Jesus was doing this to test him, we also realize some limitations that Philip needed to grow in. I suspect Philip, like many of us, was a bit limited by the fact that he felt like what he could do was really just what he might do in his own strength. Now think about this. He'd been around the miracle worker. He'd been around and already seen some pretty impressive miracles by Jesus. And yet when he's asked, Philip, what do we do with our situation? His quick default was to practical, let's, all we got to work with is what's around us. And Saul, no place for anything but a down to earth solution. I think Philip was probably one hindered by the kind of thinking that God can only work with what I see with my own eyes. I don't see any food here. There's not much we can do. I don't see any money here. There's not much we can spend. I think he probably was a bit bound up by a small faith that Christ might be impressive, but he can only work with what we've got here. And I think he might've been the kind that was inclined to trust God when it made sense, but perhaps struggle to trust when it really didn't make so much sense of what was to be done. But you know, I think Philip was one that having been tested by Jesus may not have passed in flying colors this day, but we see him and we see a contrast with the Philip that happens just a few places later, a few years later in Acts 8. Right after the church is dispersed because Stephen is stoned, and it says a great persecution broke out, we read about Philip going to Samaria, just not that many miles up the road. Keep in mind, there's persecution. Someone's just been killed in the circle of friends, and yet Philip is willing to go just a few miles up the road and preach, it says in Acts 8, to large crowds and to perform miracles that no doubt brought in larger crowds. And a little later in the chapter, when the angel of the Lord says to Philip, go down to the desert road that leads from Jerusalem down to Gaza, it says, Philip rose and went. No questions asked. I've got a clear direction from my Lord. I'm going to do it. It doesn't make any sense. What's going to be down there? And when Philip is told, run up alongside the chariot of that man that just passed you by, what does he do? He runs up along the chariot, the guy that just passed him by. I see in Philip someone that may have struggled to trust Jesus for the bigger picture, to trust in ways that stretched him. But in the testing, right in this very story, John lets us know Philip may not have passed the test that day, but Philip was growing because Jesus was challenging his thinking. It goes on to talk about Jesus walking on the water in this next section here, beginning in verse 16. And as I said earlier, this is a place that is mentioned in both Matthew and Mark, as well as here in John. And if you were to put together this familiar story and the details that come from all three of those books, before I read it, let me just put together those details. One would be that they've done the day of teaching, 5,000 men have been fed, a bunch of wives and kids have been fed as well. And now Jesus down at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, it says, compels, the verb is, is forces his disciples to head on in a boat ahead of him. And he was going to stay behind. So, so Jesus compels them out onto the water. It said, and in all three of the accounts that by the time evening came, certainly by dark, they're out on the water and Jesus is back on the land retreating for some personal time, some time to pray. It says that it was a night of struggle, that the storms quickly stirred up, and as they're seeking to cross a stretch that, by most accounts, is probably about a five-mile stretch from the east side of Sea of Galilee and the northeast side of this lake, across to Capernaum on the other side. It's about five miles, and they are struggling to get across. The way it's described in Matthew is the waves harassed them. That's not just a couple of whitecaps making it kind of adventuresome. The waves harassed them, is what Matthew said. And the wind wasn't just blowing a nice breeze, cross breeze to keep them cool on an evening. It says, blowing against them. And so, of course, there's no sails up in a condition like that. They are rowing, probably trading off. John, it's your time. I'm beat. We're not making any progress. Get to these oars. I need a rest. And it says in Mark 6, verse 48. Well, let me add this one other detail, that they struggled till the fourth watch of the night. That meant 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. Somewhere in there is when Jesus finally walks out to them. So he pushes him off in evening time. And Jesus doesn't get there till three, four, five in the morning. They've been out there six, eight, nine hours, struggling to make a journey they had made many times. And they're still only three quarters of the way across the Sea of Galilee. But I find in Mark one detail in a verse worth remembering, verse 48 of Mark 6. Mark 6, verse 48. And it says this, I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Jesus saw that they were in serious trouble. rowing hard and struggling against the wind and the waves. And it's after that, that Jesus then comes and walks on the water to meet up with them. I find that an important detail, that Jesus saw them out on the water. Of course, he knew they were there. He'd been the one to push maybe the boat out or to at least tell them, you need to cross without me. but it says that Jesus saw them struggling. Now, as I get a little bit older, my eyesight's so bad, we might go to 1230 and I won't even know what it says on that clock back there, but I know I definitely couldn't stand on the shore and look into a storm a mile or two miles into a storm and see anybody doing any, I won't even see the boat, much less some guys wrestling on the oars trying to move it along. But Mark, probably talking through the eyes of Peter, that's who we think really was the author of Mark as he told the stories and Mark wrote them down some years later, emphasizes Jesus saw us. Jesus saw us in the struggle. Saw us in the storm he sent us into. We thought it was calm. We thought it was a good idea, but he sent us into this storm, and at least for as long as he chose to stay back, he stayed back. But Mark says he saw us out on that storm. Great preacher and commentator William Barclay says of this night of the sea, It's one of the most wonderful stories in the book of John. It's all the more wonderful when we see in John's account that he really describes not the extraordinary miracle near as much as a simple incident in which John found in a way he never forgot what Jesus was like. Here's the account beginning in verse 16. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough. A strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is I. Do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat. And immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. John's account emphasizes that Jesus came to them when they were still in the midst of the storm. Hadn't even made it, but maybe three quarters of the way across. But John has a way of emphasizing how it ended. confident that they had been pushed into the storm at his hand, and confident that he saw them and knew their plight, confident that though he wasn't coming as quickly as they would like, he was aware of their needs, aware of their situation. He emphasizes this ending point, that when he came to us, it calmed down, and miraculously, we were there at the shore. when he came to us. You know, back in Psalm 107, if I could read, reference that in our first service, just the beginning of Psalm 107, it begins with saying, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. And it goes on from there to talk about the various times that Jesus, that God came to his people and saw them through. And a recurrent theme is, though the struggles may have been great, he saw them to the end. He was there and saw them, though the distress may have lasted longer than they wanted, he saw them through to the end. And when it talks about men being out on the sea, it says this in Psalm 107, starting in verse 23. Some went down to the sea in ships. See if this might've been a favorite of John's. He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, meaning their ship was facing up to old glory. They went down to the depths when the waves turned back the other direction. Their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunken men who at their wits end as they stood on the platform of the ship. They cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still. The waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he had brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the name of the Lord for his steadfast love." I wonder if John, and maybe even some of these other men, that became a psalm after that night on the sea that resonated in a fresh way. We may not be sailors, but we know storms. And I gather from what John would have us remember and what he chose to emphasize with the details that miraculously he got us home to right where we were supposed to be. It says at the end of verse 21, they were glad to take them in and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. I am reading and slowly working my way through a biography of a woman named Lilius Trotter, lived in the 1800s into the early 1900s. An artist, became a missionary from Britain down to Algiers in North Africa. And back then, just as continues to this day, many who leave the teachings of Islam and come to faith in Christ experience dreams. And Lilius observed that, and one young lady, I gather she probably was just in her early adult years, that told her of a dream she had had the night before. And Lilius wrote it down, and I read it to you. It was a young Muslim girl that said she was having trouble sleeping, that she was weighed down by just things on her mind. And so she said to Lilius the next day, I asked Jesus, Jesus, take away this care and send me some sleep. And she said, my eyes dropped down and I was asleep. And in my dream, I saw a place full of thorns that pricked against my face and were cutting my hands. And Jesus came with a long staff and a hatchet. That's a way to draw you into a dream. Jesus with a long staff and a hatchet. And he came and he began to smite the thorns on the left and to smite the storm, the thorns on the right. And he made a road as wide as one that a carriage could go down, she said. And then Jesus turned to me and said, take my staff. It will help you get home. And quickly, quickly, I got home. What a great story that reinforces what maybe John would have resonated with as well. Jesus does come. Perhaps the timing isn't what we'd want. But sooner or later, this one who can be trusted will make the path to where we're to get. It goes on to say that Jesus began to teach the next day. I can imagine they were tired as you can imagine being out and rowing all night. Imagine they probably got three, four, five in the morning, finally got to Capernaum, exhausted, slept in in a way that even my son Jackson would be proud of in his teenage years. But while they must've been taking a needed rest, Jesus and his disciples after a long night, there was people seeking him out. not just the ones that he had left behind over on the other side of the Sea of Galilee that he had fed, but it actually says that there was folks from down on the other side of the Sea of Galilee from the biggest town that existed at that time, Tiberias, and said they must have heard about things because boats from Tiberias headed up to where Jesus had been the day before and met up with folks there. And they all realized Jesus is gone And word came out, well, maybe he's back across to Capernaum, home base for him during those years that he was in the Sea of Galilee region. And so it says that many of them then traversed the Sea of Galilee to find Jesus. Let's look at what it says in chapter 6, verses 22 down to 24. And the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had only been one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples. But his disciples had gone away alone. And other boats from Tiberias, again, this town across the sea, this little bigger town, came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. Seeking Jesus. It sounds So good. Swelling crowds, not just the 15, 20,000 that he had fed the day before, now new recruits from Tiberias coming across seeking Jesus. Wow, this is good stuff, I'm sure these disciples were thinking. But boy, does Jesus, boy, does time deflate the enthusiasm that they may have felt for these seekers of Jesus. Because we see that Jesus has a response for them in verse 24 and 25 and 26, when they asked him, when they found him on the other side, they said to Jesus, Rabbi, when did you come here? And Jesus ignores their question and simply says this, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. In the message, it says it this way, you're seeking me because I filled your stomachs for free. Jesus is confrontational, isn't he? He's confrontational, particularly with those that are off-based in their seeking. And you know what? We're often very comfortable with that. We like the stories Jesus is confronting the Pharisees, setting themselves up as spiritual authorities with all the rules and regulations they had added to the Old Testament scriptures. And they're so arrogant. Get them, Jesus, get them. And when he's in the temple and he's finding people doing business there, making bank in the church grounds, man, Jesus, you just overturned that table. Throw it out, come on. Throw those coins a little further out into the courtyard. We're comfortable with Jesus being confrontational when it's like that. But confrontational when Jesus is talking to people like, well, people like you and me, people like our friends, People like our family, when he's saying things like he's saying here, you're just following me for what I can give you. That gets a little close to home sometimes. You're just in it as long as I don't bother you too much with the things I say. Or when he's confrontational and says, you're with me as long as I'm working miracles, Feed your bellies as long as the crowd and the end thing to do is follow me, but not when that all goes away. I served in young life, ministry to high school kids with the gospel. Christian ministry has been around a long time back in Maryland. I specifically remember, I have not seen this Christian gal in 30 years. She was older than me, I was college age, and I believe Melissa was into her early 30s at that point. She was one of the leaders on this weekend. Several hundred kids from various high schools, a great weekend. The gospel was being presented that weekend to high school kids by just a good speaker. Kids surrounded by leaders, college kids and older that had invested in them, built relationships with them. But as we met on the Saturday morning, I remember her saying, it seems like it was just yesterday, I almost feel like talking some of these people out of believing in Jesus. Someone's eyes rolled up. What do you mean, Melissa? She says, I wanna talk them out of an easy believism that just says, well, I'm here, my friends are believing in Jesus, I'm along for the ride. Talking them out of an emotional decision that's not grounded in a heart decision. Talking them out of just a, this is the end thing to do, at least this weekend. And I think there was some real wisdom in what she was getting after. Because she was approaching it with a strong desire to see lives dedicated and surrender to Jesus, but a great caution to seeing just an easy believism that really is not making Jesus Lord. Well, Jesus' teaching on the bread of life, in my opinion, begins to show that following after him is not just seeking in the way that so many of these people were seeking after. Jesus begins to outline what true followers, what true disciples, what true seekers, what true believers are about when it comes to approaching him. I find it interesting later in the book of John in verse 66 of our same chapter, we won't get there, that it actually says, many of his disciples no longer followed him. talking about this chapter when the teaching got hard. He says his disciples, his seekers here, they were seeking him according to the scriptures. But Jesus in his teaching here begins to make sure that we begin to understand the difference between the kind of seekers and followers and disciples and children that he desires, that he requires versus what was happening there. And I think the first thing is to make sure that we realize it is not, and this is maybe old news for so many of you, but it is not about works, it is about belief. That's emphasized a few different times in this story as Jesus unfolds what it means to take in, to eat of this bread of life. He says it a few different times, let me just point them out to you in verse 29, when it says, this is the work of God that you believe in him, whom God has sent, meaning believe in me. Look down at verse 35, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, whoever believes in me shall not thirst. Verse 40, this is the will of the father that everyone looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. And finally, verse 47 of this same short section, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. Belief in Jesus Christ, that's the focus. It's not belief in the miracles, belief in the signs, but Jesus begins to make very clear, it's not about works, and it's about a specific direction to one's belief. It is belief in Jesus Christ. He goes on to make sure we understand it's a belief that is God enabled. Look what he says in verse 44 in this section. No one can come to me unless the father who has sent me draws him. You know, the rest of the gospels remind us, even the rest of this chapter remind us that there are many that seek for a short time and then leave. that the road to destruction is a wide road, the road to eternal life is a narrow road. Even this very section, crowds 15, 20,000 dwindle within 24 hours of this great miracle on a hillside at the Sea of Galilee, when it says that many, many of his disciples no longer followed him, verse 66 of this very chapter. You know, it's a hard teaching when we read that you can't get to God unless the Father draws him. It can be a real stumbling block to say, Jesus is blocking, the Father is blocking some people from coming to him. That's not what the scriptures say here. The scriptures make a point of saying it's about the Father drawing, pulling someone. to a faith in Christ. In fact, another time that this word draws is used, again, verse 44, no one can come to me unless the father who has sent me draws that person. Another occasion is actually near the very end of John when Jesus comes to them and once again tells them to cast their nets and the nets fill up with fish. And it says, they drew the nets into the boat. It's not an image of Jesus just kind of opening the door like a bell man and letting you through. It's about Jesus pulling someone who still is resisting into the presence of his son, into a relationship with his son, that he enables us to have faith in Christ. So Jesus says, you must be drawn by the Father to be a true follower of me. And then he says, you must have a wholehearted belief as he begins to unpack what it means to eat of this bread of life. I'd say it's almost like you need to swallow this bread of life. The key verse here is the last verse of my section here. Let me read it to you, verse 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. What does it mean to swallow this bread? Well, St. Augustine has been appreciated for 1600 years by a simple phrase that he coined to describe what it means to eat of this bread. He simply said, and of course he wrote it in Latin originally, believe and you have eaten. Believe, Augustine said, and you have eaten. But eating is not always eating. Picture the mom of one of these wonderful kids that was up here on the stage. They're under a year now, but if I've got my math right, in a couple years, they'll be under three years of age. And sooner or later, there'll be a time when she puts a plate in front of one of these little ones, one of these little boys, one of these little girls, and she's in the other room getting something done, maybe attending to another child, and she says, are you eating your food? Yes, mother. And even as they're saying, yes, mother, they are pushing the peas around with the fork on the plate, making games. And they are tucking the casserole around the lid thinking mother will never find this. And if it's a little boy, he's over at the trash can scraping off the stuff he doesn't like and then covering it with some of the cucumber peels that mom just put in there. There's eating and then there's eating. And just saying that you're eating or just playing and nibbling is not what Jesus is after. I think Augustine helps us in two respects. to begin to get us thinking about what does it mean to truly eat of this bread of life? I think it could be a long and important study of the things that God requires to truly eat of this bread of life. But I wanna make sure that at least two of them are driven home today. One of them is this, we need to accept all that Jesus has to say, all that Jesus has to teach. I think there's many a person, you know, I'm at work, you know, I'm in your family, you know, I'm across the street that would find some good stuff somewhere in here, somewhere in this book, but get to the things that aren't politically correct, get to the things that they just don't like, get to the things that place Jesus authority on their lives. And They were pretty quick to close the book and say, not that part. Augustine, again, 1600 years ago said about that, if you believe what you like in the gospel and you reject what you don't like, it's not the gospel you believe, it's yourself. If you believe what you like in the gospel, but not what you don't, but reject what you don't like. It's not the gospel you believe, it's yourself. You believe yourself as the authority, the final authority to decide what of Jesus' teachings are worth holding onto, which ones I'm gonna obey, which ones I'm gonna get excited about, and which ones I'm gonna leave behind. Augustine also talked about what it means to really approach Jesus in faith, the kind of belief that is to have eaten of this bread of life. And of all things, he goes back to the story in Luke 8, where a woman came up and touches the fringe of the garment. Who was that woman? Remember, sick for 12 years, internal bleeding. She touches the garment in faith and is healed 10 months later, five years later, immediately. And I love the interaction Augustine brings out, just pointing to what happened when that happened. It says that as Jesus went, the people pressed in on him, jostled him around as he's trying to get through the crowd, like heading down to the Pepsi Center for a sold-out event, and you're on the escalator and thinking, I'm gonna fall off this thing, because people are just jostling me around, pushing. We're all gonna get there at the same time. And as they jostle Jesus around, Jesus turns to his disciples, and what does he say? He says, who touched me? Keep in mind, what part of his body did she touch? None of his body. Touch the fringe of his garment. You could touch the tail of my little coat here if we were in a crowd. I'd never feel that. but she touched just the fringe of his garment. And he looks to his disciples and says, who touched me? And Peter says, Lord, master, the crowd surrounds you. They're pressing in on you. How can you say who touched you? And Jesus said, somebody touched me. And it was then that the woman knowing she had been found out comes, falls on her face and worships the Lord and describes what happened to her. I touched his garment. I knew if I just touched his garment, I would be healed. Jesus looks and says, daughter, not friend, not neighbor, daughter, your faith has healed you. And what Augustine says about that, about that kind of belief is this, that woman who touched the hem of his garment, touched him more than the crowd that pressed in against him. That's the kind of faith, the kind of interaction with Jesus that we must have. You know, friends, this is not a gluten-free chapter, is it? There's a lot of talk about bread. And John chooses to begin with a story about physical bread being multiplied. But he alone transitions to say, He fed with physical bread one day, but the next day he really taught what was most important, spiritual bread and the need to take that in. It's a chapter of warnings of those that seek at a shallow level, that believe only so far. And when Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And that bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Indeed, he gave his own flesh, didn't he? He gave it on a cross to pay for the sins of all that would seek to follow after him. You know, the crowd's enthusiasm dwindled. referenced before that by the end of this chapter, many had left. And I have to ask myself and ask you, what does it mean to truly seek and to follow and to believe and to love Christ in the way that he requires? Sometimes we need to make an analogy to something else, and I end with that, an analogy to love. Because I don't know if we know about seeking and following the same way as we can relate to that word love. 25 years ago, a book was written called Corelli's Mandolin. And in the story, there's a time in which the father, now in his older years, is talking with his daughter. She's grown up. His wife, the young lady's mother, has died. And he uses the occasion to talk with her and describe the kind of love that is real love. And this is how he says it to his daughter. Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and quickly subsides. And when it subsides, you have a decision to make. You have to work out whether your roots, and he's referring to love and a marriage in this case, have become so entwined together that it's inconceivable that you could ever be pulled apart. Because that is what love is. Love is not breathlessness. It's not excitement. It's not passionate promises. That's just being in love, and any of us can convince ourselves we're in love. And he ends with this, talking to his daughter. Love itself is what's left over when being in love has burned away. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away. And maybe to that John would add, and believing is what is left over when Jesus' teachings and demandings are hard. And eating this bread of life is what is left over when sampling and nibbling gives way to truly swallowing and eating of this bread of life. May we all do that. In Jesus' name. Father, we thank you for this chance to study words that are perhaps very familiar, stories that we've loved, some of us since Sunday school. But Lord, we thank you for the hard teaching that's true teaching. And Lord, we ask and thank you, first of all, for being the bread of life. And Lord, I pray that every soul here, including my mind, would eat more deeply, get more filled with this bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, all that he is, all that he teaches, and all that he asks of us. Dismiss us with your blessing in Jesus name, amen. You're dismissed.