First Things First

John 6:24-35

Transcript

Once again, Father, may your will be done. Jesus, may your word be proclaimed in spirit. May your work be accomplished in us. We pray. So in the gospel reading we come, we're still journeying through John, the gospel of John.
And Jesus begins this discourse talking about eating bread. And what we're going to see in the next couple weeks is this theme about bread and eating bread and what this means to as a spiritual significance. This morning I have to be honest with you, it's going to be a little deep in here necessarily. Nor can we pet it or touch it. It's abstract.
The thing that I want to focus on, there's just one point I want to focus on, is that Jesus does teach us to seek first spiritual things and not physical things. And that's a hard reality because we all have before us each and every moment of every day the physical requirements to breathe. We think we need three meals a day. We think we need sleep to give us rest. We need food to sustain and nourish our lives.
These are all physical things we need to work in order to receive money to keep the electricity on. Those are the tangible things they're coming. And he specifically mentions, because they are of the 5000 that he fed. You come because I filled you with food and you're seeking me again to have your bellies full. Then he admonishes them and says, stop working for them.
You sought me out in order to gain a physical need. Quit working for that instead. Work for something that you won't ever need again. Something spiritual food that never perishes but goes on to eternal life. If you're going to work or seek out anything, seek that.
And he says, and the Son of man will give this to you because God the Father put his seal on you. And these people said, well, how can we get this thing? How can we get this permanent solution to our needs rather than a temporary need? Every day we need more food. But give us this food to where we'll never hunger and thirst again.
What do we need to do? What work can we do? And Jesus says, the work that is required of you is faith. To believe in the one that God sent. That's it.
Kind of putting two and two together that people begin to say, okay, so maybe Jesus is the one who has sent to give us this food. So what sign, what work would you perform so that we can believe and trust in you? And Jesus looks at them and responds to them. And he talks about the fact that, well, they reference Moses. See, they have already been given a sign.
Moses gave them the sign of man in the wilderness. What sign like that can you give us? Now, keep in mind he's already fed them miraculously, and they're asking yet for another sign. There's a point of application there we'll get to later. But then Jesus responds that if you believe in him, the one that God the Father has sent, then you'll begin to realize that it wasn't Moses who gave you that food.
It was the father who gave you that food. And now the Father has sent somebody to give you this bread from heaven. And they said, give us this bread from heaven. And Jesus in the last verse of our gospel lesson this morning says, I am the breath of life. All those who believe in me will never hunger or thirst again.
And what I want to focus on this morning, like I said, is the spiritual over the physical. There's this concept of putting first things first that I think is a very wise and biblical attribute and characteristic to develop in your life. And that is putting first things first, not necessarily as priority, but seeking after that which is most important, that can flesh out the rest of all your life. And Jesus teaches us time and time and time again that we have to speak, that we have to search for and seek out the spiritual more than the physical, because if you do that, then you'll get everything else. But if you pursue the physical, you will never get that which is spiritual.
And this begins by understanding the greatest need is not to have our bellies full, to not have gas in our cars, to not pay our electric bill. None of that is the primary thing that we ultimately need. That's right in front of our face. But that often blinds us to a greater reality. And that is we are in need spiritually to be saved and rescued from sin and death.
It is sin and death that has ruined the world that we currently live in and requires us to be constantly over feeling ourselves over and over and over again, when the true intent from the very beginning is to completely trust and rely on God to. To sustain our lives in every regard. See, Jesus doesn't just teach with bread. People are coming to him to be fed. And he uses that opportunity.
He uses the physical need that the people are seeking out to point to the greater reality, the spiritual need. And that is, they are in need of faith to believe in the one that God has sent that can redeem them and rescue them and remedy their lives. Because if you get that, if you can overcome sin and death, the greater thing, then all the little lesser things in this life will also be afforded to you, this is the very same thing that he does to the woman at the well who comes to get water. We all need water to drink, right? She comes to get water and he says, give me a drink.
And she looks and he doesn't have it. And he says, if you knew who was telling you or asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have gave you living water. That's what is taking place. He teaches the same thing when it comes to water, but not only that, we also are given in his ministry experience, the healing, health. When the paralytic comes, you remember this story.
The four lower him through the roof, and Jesus says, seeing their faith, he says, your sins are forgiven. And our first instinct, our first impulse is to say that, oh, well, no, he needs to walk. Jesus, that's what the present reality is. But Jesus doesn't have eyes like we have eyes. He has true vision.
He says, no, his greatest need is not the use of his legs. His greatest need is to be restored to God, the provider of all things, the one who can speak and make his legs walk again. That's his greatest need, is to be restored. And to be restored to God. You have to have your sins forgiven.
And Jesus is the only one that is capable of forgiving sins.
And so that's what the paralytic story tells us. And what the woman at the well tells us. And what this scene about the bread of life tells us is Jesus is trying to admonish and encourage and teach people that are following, seeking after him the true way to see life, the true way to live, and that it begins with faith in him. The trusting in him opens up the floodgates of heaven, for which God the Father can open his hand and provide the needs of everyone. That's it.
That's what the story, all the way back in Exodus 16, the manna he provides, they're grumbling. And God the Father provides food in the wilderness for them after he delivered them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, which signifies for us that when we're delivered from a life of sin and death through faith in Jesus Christ, then that positions us. That no matter where we are, in the wilderness or on a mountaintop in a valley, high or low, no matter where we are, we are right finally with God, who has rescued us and redeemed us. And now he is the one that owns a cattle on a thousand hills, and he provides for our very need. And just in case I haven't been able to convince you with these stories and these teachings that Jesus implements with the bread and the water and the healing of the paralytic.
Listen to these really profound words of Jesus teaching on the sermon of the mount, a Moses like figure who ascends to the mount and begins to speak and preach the good news to the people. Matthew 625 begins this for this reason Jesus says, I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow, is thrown into the furnace, he will not much more clothe you. Will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith. Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear for clothing for the gentiles eagerly seek all these things.
For your heavenly father knows what you need and that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. I couldn't frame that better. Jesus own words are what is being spoken to us in this gospel lesson for us today concerning bread. That seeking the kingdom, the king himself, first and foremost in our lives, putting first things first, ordering our lives rightly, that's what we need to do.
That's what he's come to teach us and guide us in seeking first the kingdom, then all these things will be added to. He's trying to reveal to us and make us realize that there's an exact need that is more and bigger and greater than all the needs that we have on a daily basis. Those are assumed needs. Those are needs that are before our faces, the only thing that blinds us to a greater reality and our need for Jesus. This manifests itself time and time again, manifested itself this week.
I could tell you that in my experience just over the last few years, how many times people who aren't members of the church call the church to ask them to provide for some physical needs, and majority of the time and quite often the church will pay an electric bill to get their electric turn back on. We'll give them a ride to their work. We'll give them food. We'll tend to these physical needs. But if what Jesus is saying is true, that what their greatest need is and what should be more so out of our mouths and our actions should be more geared towards is their spiritual need first, and then we can give them the physical need.
And oftentimes we give them the physical need to prove true of their great spiritual need. And that's what we need to do. You've heard me say, I think I said it last week, that we have to be more than just a soup kitchen. We have to be more than just a boys and girls club building relationships with teenagers. We have to be more than just a place where people can come and feel welcomed.
We have to be more than a place where people could come and seek out help. We have to be a people that recognizes what Jesus is really trying to get this, this crowd to understand and realize there's a spiritual need. And if you seek that first and you put those things first, then all these other things will take care of themselves. Because without your reconciliation with God the Father, who clothes the grass of the field, the lilies of the field, and provides for the birds of the air, into which you matter more to him than all those things, without being restored to that relationship, then you don't have access to him to provide for your life in the ways you truly need it. I'm not preaching a prosperity gospel where if you just have faith in Jesus, he is going to give you a wellspring of money and financial stability.
He is going to give you exactly what you need and what is right and good for your life because you're surrendered and you're trusting in him to do this. This plays out a real practical way, a lesson that I had to greatly learn because my dad instilled with me that I had to be a real, I had to have a solid work ethic, I had to work to provide for my family and that it's just family takes care of family and that's it. So I went to college under this understanding. I began in ministry under this understanding. And then what happened is I ruined my own life with my own work.
I made poor decisions to where I was in need of somebody to help me pay my electric bill. I was in need of somebody to take care of my rent. I couldn't fix my own life. I had dug a hole that I couldn't get out of. And I was in desperate need.
But it was in that moment when I was looking for somebody to help me physically, because that somehow would make sense if I could just get reestablished in my life and get my feedback on the ground. That's how I'm going to be successful in life. I just need a little help to get there. I need to work. I need to do this.
But really what I needed was to increase my faith in Jesus Christ. And now I positioned myself to not be able to do anything on my own. And I was primed and right and ready to finally listen to Jesus. I remember praying, I don't know how to do this. Jesus, I can't get a job anywhere.
I've ruined my life. What do I do? He says, live by faith. By faith. Can you trust me?
Yeah. Can you trust me? Yeah. So I was led to, I hear that there's an oil boom in Montana. This is during 2008.
The economy, if you don't remember, back then, was just horrific. I couldn't get a job at Dollar general because of my mistakes. And I heard about this opportunity. I said, well, I never worked in an oil field before. I don't know what I'm doing.
Like, I don't. Jesus said, do you trust me? Yeah. Okay. And you know what happened next?
My dad got cancer. Like, Jesus, wait, time out. I'm trusting you. He says, hold on. My dad got cancer, and he got this huge check from his insurance.
My dad handed me the debit card. He says, go and get a job. I'm like, dad, I'm not gonna. I don't wanna hand me down. Like, I don't want this.
He goes, go. I go, dad, I've never worked in the oil field. I don't even know anything about this place. And yet Jesus was telling me, will you go? But I looked online.
There's no hotels. Where am I gonna stay? I can't even rent a car. Well, I'm gonna show up, get this plane ticket, show up in Williston, North Dakota, and just walk around homeless. And I literally, like, I felt the Lord just saying, like, if that's what it takes, will you trust me?
So I got a one way plane ticket to Williston, North Dakota. I landed in a small airport, and on my way over, it wasn't time to be an introvert. I was talking to everybody. I was like, what's it like being in the oil field? Do you think I could find a job?
What do I need to do? All I had was a couple pairs of clothes changes of clothes and a suit, because I knew that I was going to hopefully get an interview. And so I go, we land there, and I'm like, oh, man, this is a small airport. I've never seen such a small airport before. And there was one table where you can rent cars from Alamo or whatever it was, and there was this guy just left the desk.
So I walked up, and this is back when you could check everything online, and everything was booked. It's an oil boom. And I go, and I said, online, you don't have any cars available, but do you happen to have anything that I might have? I don't care what it is. A motorcycle.
I don't care what it is. And they said, actually, this gentleman just turned in the Honda Civic. So I go, I'll take it for three weeks. I don't know why I rattled three weeks, but I just said, I'll take it for three weeks. So now I had a car, nowhere to stay, but I could sleep in the back of my car.
So I drove around all of Williston trying to figure out the places I was going to find. This is a Sunday. The places I was going to go to tomorrow and ask for a job. And so I began to drive around, and I said, well, I'll just stay here. And then I wanted to waste some time.
So I just go into these hotels that were completely maxed out and had no vacancy whatsoever. But I'd walk in there, there'd be a line at the desk of people asking the same question I'm about to ask, and that is, do you have a room available? It even got to the point. I overheard some people talking about sharing rooms with other guys, like to split the cost. It's just an oil boom.
Everybody's just flooding into this place. And so I'm being turned away left and right, and I find this one international airport Inn in Williston, North Dakota. Kind of a big hotel, older hotel. And what didn't reconcile in my mind is that doesn't seem like a lot of cars compared to the size of that hotel. So I pulled in there, and there was two people ahead of me.
And so the people ahead of me were asking the same question. Do you have any rooms available? So they turned them away. And when I stepped up to the desk, the receptionist went and answered the phone, and this other person comes up to the counter, she goes, how can I help you? I think I already know the answer, but I don't have.
I have time to kill. Do you have a room available? She taps on the computer. And she says, I do. We have one for emergencies.
And I guess your emergency. I said, I'll take it for three weeks. So now I have a car, I have a place. And right when that she got, that receptionist got off the phone, looked at her, and she goes, what did you do? Halliburton just bought out this hotel.
We don't have any rooms because I was already in the system. I had a room. And so I'm ironing my suit for the next day, go down to the lobby to grab a cup of coffee. I talked to the guy on the night shift, and I said, you know, where should I go to? Really?
Like, I just need a job, man. Where should I go? And he was telling me, he's like, well, what are you gonna wear? I said, I got the suit. You know, it's my papa suit, one with the missing button right here.
And he says, oh, no, your supervisors aren't wearing suits. They're wearing FRS fr clothes and button ups and blue jeans. It's like, good to know. So I wore blue jeans and a button. And the next day, I went out.
I went to slumber Jay. It was the first people I ran into. And the first question I was asked, do you have a place to live? I didn't even get it. Like, hey, I'm looking for a job.
Like, do you have a place to live? And because I have a hard time, like, lying and I'm not quick on my feet, I said, nope. And they're like, ah, I would have gave you a job right now if you had a place to live. And I was hitting myself, like, man, why can't I lie? But so then I go to this roustabout company right next door, and I'm sitting there.
Two guys were in the lobby. They go in, they come out, just like, high five. And they have jobs. They start Monday. I'm like, oh, lord, man, this is the scariest thing I've ever done.
But, man, I went in there and I sat down and I just vomited. I'm like, I've been in trouble. I've just done this up, and I will work so hard for you. And they're like, we'll call you and let you know. I was like, dang it.
So I kill some time. And finally I got that phone call from them, and they said, can you start a Monday? You'll make $18 an hour, and you'll be working, like, 60 hours a week, 15 hours, days. So I will start. And I worked my rear end off, and I had begun making the most money.
I never made six figures. The most money I'd ever made prior to that was 32,000 a year. And I made over six figures that first year, making more money coming from a life that I ruined. And the Lord was restoring things in my life. And the reason why, and there's more to that story, but I don't have time to go into all the reason why I'm painting that picture is because that's the only example of my own personal life, where when I began to put things spiritually first in my life, seeking after Christ, all those things began to take care of itself to me, as I'm thinking through this deep reality that Jesus is teaching us, seek first the kingdom, then all these things will be added.
Don't first go to these things. I'm not telling you that we shouldn't go and work, that we shouldn't go and give people food, that we shouldn't go and help people physically. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that Jesus is teaching how to. He's teaching us how to order our lives rightly.
And it begins to, by seeking the remedy for our spiritual need. We're all sinful. We're all in need of saving from sin and death, and Jesus is the only one who can take care and remedy that and is the solution for that. This is why he's teaching. I'm the bread of life.
Bread. The physical need for bread is a point. It's a sign to a greater reality that you are in need of me. So orient your whole life towards that end. Orient your whole life on the spiritual rather than the physical.
This is the lesser of the two. This is the greater. And that's not to say that you can't go and find joy in playing golf or basketball or some kind of sports or extracurricular activity, but it's that you are, first and foremost, always going to tend to your spiritual needs in Christ Jesus through your faith in him. And what that looks like and what I often lead people to believe according to the scriptures is we want to prioritize and say, okay, well, if I just get Jesus first, then I could do all these things. That's not what I'm saying either.
What I'm telling you is you don't prioritize Jesus. You put him first, but he's also 2nd, 3rd, fourth, and fifth. That means Jesus gets the first fruits of my life, and I seek after him by faith alone. And then everything else that I do in my life, he's there with me. You take your kids to school or to basketball, he's right there with me.
He's not first. And then now I got him out of the way and I can go and do all these things. He is 1st, 2nd, 3rd. You don't prioritize, he just becomes your life. And that's what he's teaching.
Seek me first and if you don't really know what that looks like. And my life example is that wasn't that great of a influencing example to learn what it is to live by faith each and every step of the way and not worry about how I'm going to get this and that and the other, and just be willing to follow jesus every step of the way. Jesus own life demonstrates that he puts the spiritual before the physical for his own self in order to provide an example for us to follow. Luke 958 says this, and Jesus said to them, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Matthew four four says this, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on the very word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
John 432 says, but he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And the hard reality is Jesus, are you saying like, I don't need to worry about like, eating and drinking?
I can't escape that? That's the reality that he's trying to teach? Are you, are you telling me that I shouldn't work so hard in order to make sure I have a failsafe in case things go awry in the economy? Are you telling me that, like, I need to trust you and walk by faith and tend to the things that are spiritual more than the physical in my life?
I don't think there's evidence from the scriptures to say that the physical is greater than the spiritual and that Jesus is not teaching that the spiritual is greater? And that's a hard reality. You know why it's a hard reality? It's because oftentimes it's easier when people show up in need just to give them food. But we never talk about Jesus.
That is super easy.
How? It's like somebody called me and they needed help to get their electricity back on during a heat wave. It's like, yeah, it's easy just to say, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, let me help you. And we never have on the edge of our tongues their greatest need. You know, even Peter in the book of acts was approached by the poor.
And he says, I don't have any money to give you, but what I do have, I give you. And he shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
So to bring this gospel lesson to a closing is we got to put first things first together as a community here. As we begin to engage in these conversations about what we are, who we are, and what we represent, this has to be a guidepost for us to determine what it is that we will do and how we will do it. If we're going to truly be a city on the hill, we can't be a city on a hill that offers all the physical needs but none of the spiritual. We first have to promote and be about providing for spiritual needs through Jesus Christ and faith in him and getting the gospel out to people more so than we are doing all the physical stuff.
That's what Jesus is teaching. So we have to put first things first.
And what's really interesting is that if we would just do that by faith, and that's, and I get it. That's really challenging and it's really foreign to our nature. It's foreign to the culture and the government we live in. It's a radical way of life, but nonetheless, Jesus is teaching it, and I can't avoid it. But there's a promise in there.
There's a promise, and it comes in that very last verse where he says, I am the bread of life. All those who believe in me will never hunger or thirst again.
And it requires faith to truly trust and believe that, that Jesus is all satisfying. All satisfying. I'll close with this just to kind of drive the point home because this is, as I was studying this passage and I was looking into it, I was encountered with how to manifest this in my own ministry this week with somebody that was in great physical need.
Me and Melissa and I, we said, like, you know, we would like to help this person out, so we help this person out. And when I talk to him, he's a believer. I got that out of the way. I just struggled like, nobody's going to ride with me from a place. I'm not going to go get them groceries without them hearing the gospel.
I just don't have time to play games. I just don't do that. And I don't care how, like, nervous I might be, I just can't do that. But he was already a believer. But he was a believer who wasn't plugged into a church.
He knew to come to the church and ask for help, but he hasn't committed himself to a body of believers. So I began to share with him what I believe. This is the reality that Jesus teaches is you can't say that Jesus is your king and then ignore his wife. I began to paint this picture. I said, just imagine.
Imagine that if you sought after Christ first and foremost in your life, if you put him first in all things and you sought him by faith for your spiritual needs, and you committed yourself to a church who got to know you and not just something about you, who was able to see and witness your own character, who knew you. And then when you came into this really hard moment in your life because they are familiar with you already, what Jesus loves to do is he likes to employ his people to take care of each other. And can you imagine, had you not been removed from a church, a family where you're connected with one another and everybody knows each other, that you wouldn't have to be a stranger to this church, in this church and this church, and you're asking for help. If you would have sought after Christ for the spiritual needs that you have, it would have led you to be among a community that would be led by Jesus, so that when you encounter a really challenging moment in your life, when you come to an end of yourself, he'll move his bride, his wife, to take care of you. I told him, I said, one of the things that I hope to direct Fairview Methodists is that we take care of each other first.
That's our first calling. And then when we're all taken care of, when the family, when the bride is nourished and fed, then we go and start tending to those out there.
I'm of the mind that it may be a challenging lesson, but we have to tend to the spiritual more than the physical. Let's pray.
Jesus, sometimes you say hard things, and later we'll see that this crowd really had a hard time accepting what you were telling them. I pray that we would not be like that crowd. I pray that our hearts would be open, our minds would be open, and that we would receive what it is that you are teaching us and speaking to us, that you are our greatest need and that our relationship with you and your father is most important, more so than bread that can sustain our lives on a daily basis. I pray that you would encourage each and everybody to grow in their faith here, to trust you and to walk with you through life, not relying on their own works or their own abilities, but relying on you in all things. I ask you that you fill us with your spirit so that we can walk and live accordingly.
And I ask this in your name, Jesus.