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ST. STEPHEN’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

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Come Lord Jesus

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A sermon on John 6:35-51 for 13th Sunday after Pentecost, August 16/19, 2018.

“Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let these gifts to us be blessed. O, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” Many meals have opened with this prayer. It focuses our attention on the provider of the plentiful blessings placed before us. We recall the great love our Savior has showered upon us not just with the meal but with all his goodness and love.

 

These words also might be glossed over too quickly. Our stomachs growl making us concentrate more on the food rather than on the provider. We think about all the events happening at work, school, with family, or friends that our thanks seems hollow. We need to invite Jesus as the guest of honor at our table. He sustains and strengthens us with his blessings and goodness.

 

We also ask him to come with something much greater for us. We ask him to bring us bread. This is no ordinary bread that comes to fill our stomachs, but we seek the Bread of Life who comes to bring us salvation.

 

Come Lord Jesus…

  1. To give us lasting food.
  2. To raise us up on the Last Day.

 

The Jews wanted bread from Jesus. They witnessed how Jesus fed a crowd of over five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Everyone ate, and they even picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. Their minds immediately went to the kind of future Jesus could provide them with. Just imagine what Jesus could do if he were made king. The people would not have to worry. Everything they needed would be given to them.

 

Jesus quickly turned their attention to the work he came to do. Jesus said he came to do the work of the one who sent him. The crowd wanted a miracle for Jesus to prove this assertion. Their forefathers ate manna in the desert over the forty years of wandering. How will Jesus top that? Jesus said that bread will come down from heaven that will give lasting life.

 

The Jews were hooked. Give us this bread! “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. ‘The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35). It sounded too good to be true. Food that will never leave a person wanting or needing anymore.

 

We eat throughout the day, sometimes probably more than we should. Would it be nice to eat one thing and never be hungry again? No matter how much we work, no matter how much energy we exert, we would never become hungry. People would jump at the chance for this food that lasts.

 

Jesus offers us this lasting food. Jesus reveals that he is the Bread of Life. As we come to him, we will never be hungry or thirsty. How can this be? We eat. We still grow hungry; maybe some are hungry right now. So, how can Jesus offer food that lasts? The answer comes in the second part of this verse. He who believes in me will never thirst.

 

Jesus speaks about our faith. Jesus directs our attention not to physical food, which only leaves us desiring more, but to spiritual food that will last. This meal will give us what we need for life. This bread will leave us not needing anything else. Jesus came to offer this lasting food for all.

 

He came to give up his flesh. When Jesus offered up his body upon the cross, we gained life. As Jesus groaned in agony under the weight of the world’s sins placed upon his shoulders, we receive his glory in place of our many sins. His life brings us life. We come to feast on the Bread of Life in his Word to receive food that will last.

 

It seems so simple. Thousands of people will flock to a restaurant that advertises free food. Those very same people will have to return to the same restaurant to receive additional food when they hunger again. Jesus offers us food that will last. How sad it is when people do not take advantage of Jesus’ lasting food.

 

“But I said to you that you have also seen me, and you do not believe” (John 6:36). The Jews witnessed so many of Jesus’ miracles. This very crowd saw the miraculous feeding. Many of them could have been healed by Jesus’ touch. They listened to his preaching and teaching. Despite all of this heir hearts left hungrier than when they first came.

 

They wondered how Jesus, the son of a common carpenter from Nazareth, could possibly be the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. They scoffed as Jesus told them to come to him for food that will last. They rejected him as a fraud, a blasphemer, a man worthy of death.

 

We cannot let the simplicity fool us. We do not want to focus solely on the powerful miracles wishing Jesus only to bring earthly comfort. We need to look to his promises. The eyes of faith point us to Jesus as the only Savior from sin. We fill up on the food of his Word that will leave us stuffed. Jesus is the Bread of Life!

 

Jesus continued showing the people that faith connected them to him. “Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). Our heavenly Father reaches out with his saving word to all those whom he has chosen to be brought to faith. The Word creates faith in our hearts. True faith will never reject the Bread of Life. Even though many reject him, even though thousands chase after food that will only spoil and leave them wanting more, through faith Jesus gives food that will last.

 

Come Lord Jesus to give us food that will last. As we fill up on this food of our Savior, we also know that he will raise us up on the last day.

 

Since Jesus came not to be an earthly King but to offer the Bread of Life from heaven, he has work to do while on earth. He was not here to provide for the people with a life of luxury and worry free years. He came to the do the will of his Father. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). What exactly was this will? “And this is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me, but raise them up on the Last Day” (John 6:39).

 

Jesus would not rest until all those the Father had chosen would be brought to him. All those people, all those who have been called by the gospel to faith, will also be raised on the Last Day. Jesus will not lose a single one in his care.

 

The Christian will persevere through this life. The attacks of the unbelieving world will deflect from them. The lies of Satan will hold no value for them. Even the struggles with loss or hurt or anxiety or heartache will not rip us away from the hands of the Lord. Jesus holds onto us. Jesus will make sure that we will rise on the Last Day.

 

The promise means so much that Jesus repeated it. “For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day” (John 6:40). Again, the simplicity strikes us. Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.

 

It does not say that only those who lived a perfect life completely free from sin will receive the inheritance of eternal life. We are imperfect from birth. It does not say those that struggle with a certain sin or desire will have no chance to be saved. Again, we have all been there and done that.

 

It says all those who look to Jesus in faith will be saved. Faith saves us. Faith rests on the certainty that Jesus’ death pays for it all sins. Faith also leads us to leave our sinful ways behind to live a life according to God’s will. This gift is meant for all no matter their past sins.

 

God’s love reaches out to those struggling with alcohol or drug addictions. It does not matter if a person is dealing with pornography or same sex attractions. God’s mercy and forgiveness reach the most hardened heart. God’s message of forgiveness comes to me with my sins of thought and deed.

 

All who repent of their erring ways, who acknowledge they have broken God’s commands and will for their life, those who seek forgiveness and the strength to live free from the bondage of addictions, and sinful attractions, and want to break down their heart of stone find life only in Jesus. They will know the peace of forgiveness. They will be raised up on the last day to live with their Savior where they will never hunger or thirst again.

 

Come Lord Jesus to give us food that will last. Fill us up with your goodness each and every day. Let us feast on your Word so that our faith may be every strengthened. Finally, when our time is ended on this earth, raise us up on the last day, so that we may ever be with you for all eternity. Amen.

 

 

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