Yesterday I preached my first sermon as the senior pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Apex, NC (you can watch the sermon here). We began a new series examining the “I Am” statements in the gospel of John. In John 6:35, Jesus declares;
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Earlier in chapter 6, Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 men, plus women and children. I believe that this miracle feeds into the proclamation of verse 35 that Jesus is the bread of life. In other words, what Jesus did in that miracle of feeding reveals who He is. It helps us understand that Jesus satisfies the deep hunger of our souls. My goal in the sermon was to help my church family fight to find their satisfaction in Christ alone.
All of us long to be satisfied. In fact, the passage states that the crowd sought Jesus out because they ate their fill of the loaves. They had their meal and were satisfied, but were hungry again. Simply put, they wanted Jesus to satisfy their stomach, but Jesus was not there to satisfy their stomachs. Jesus was there as their savior to give eternal satisfaction of the soul.
Satisfaction is one of the good gifts of God. The problem comes when we seek satisfaction in the gifts of God, and not in God himself.
There are many people that seek satisfaction in food and drink in order to find comfort from their troubled life. There are many people that seek satisfaction in money and possessions to find meaning and purpose. There are many people that seek friendships and relational intimacy in order to satisfy the deeper longings of their hearts.
But in these things no one will never be fully satisfied. There is always more, there will always be a rumbling in the stomach, an emptiness. However, the call of this passage is clear. Jesus satisfies the deep hunger of our souls.
It would seem that it is not lack of desire that keeps people from Jesus. We all have a desire to be satisfied. What keeps people from Jesus is having misaimed desires or wrong ideas about how those desires can be met. Sometimes this is true of Christians also.
What if we really believed that Jesus satisfied the deep hunger of our souls? It would change everything.
Instead seeing food and drink as a way to satisfy our longing for comfort, we would find our comfort in Jesus Christ alone. Instead of seeking meaning or purpose in money or possessions, we would find our meaning and purpose in Jesus Christ alone. Instead of demanding others fill our needs of love and companionship, we would find that where others let us down, Jesus will always be more than enough.
The fight of the Christian life, the work mentioned in verse 29, is to truly believe that Jesus is the answer to all human need, our primary source of nourishment.
It is not an accident that Jesus used the analogy of bread here. Bread is the most basic food of nourishment, even in third world countries today. It’s not like filet mignon, something only a select few can enjoy. No, bread is available to everyone.
Oh that we would be satisfied in Jesus, the bread of life. When we taste and see that the Lord is good, our satisfaction in Him brings Him the glory, and allows us to lay down all the things of this world for the cause of Christ. May we also invite everyone to the table to feast and be satisfied!
Jesus alone satisfies the deep hunger of our souls.
DR. MATT CAPPS 