Sermon Summary 2-24-08

The Bread of Life Brings Eternal Life.  Prt. 2 - John 6:41-59

We Must Believe in the true Bread of Life.

•  At least the Jews really cared who Jesus is. 41

• The wrong Bread of Life will not bring eternal life any more than moldy bread will be good for your health.

• Many today do not care who he is, as long as the church is doing well, they are happy, and life is good.

• The fastest growing churches (which are not true churches) are those that don’t believe the Jesus of the Bible.

  • JW’s – grew 2.25 % in 2007.

  • Mormons- 1.56% (http://www.ncccusa.org/news/080215yearbook1.html)

• Many preachers believe things that are not true about Jesus, but it does not bother us because they know how to tell a joke, they are great communicators, and they can grow big churches.

• Individually we do this as well. We don’t care to think very deeply about Jesus. We just want to know that he loves us and will take care of us.

• Jesus is Eternal. He lived before he was born and He still lives today.

• 8 times Jesus says he “came down from heaven.”

We Must Believe What the Bread of Life says.

He says Salvation comes in a certain order.

1. Father draws

2. You come

3. You have eternal life.

• If you skip the first part there is no true coming and no eternal life.

• If you skip the first you may come, but it will not be a genuine coming; maybe you didn’t count the cost. You’ll have moments of improvement rather than moments of slipping.

• Those that go on living like they did before they “came” to Jesus only show that the Father did not draw them; they only show they have not tasted the Bread of Life. 53

He says Salvation is Eternal

• That has been the whole point of this passage.  Jesus is better than the manna that came to the Israelites because those that ate the manna still died.  Those that eat of the Bread of Life will live forever.

• Because Jesus will never lose those who the Father calls. - 37-40

• Eternal – 4 times 22-59 – 27, 40, 47, 54

• Illustration – Finding Jesus is like a poor man who tells his friends that he found a pot of gold.  Though his friends have never seen the pot of gold, they believe him because he has a new car, house, and clothes.  The way that he lives proves that he has really found gold. His friends believe him and want what he has.

• Someone who claims to be Christian but does not live like it, is like a man who says he has found a pot of gold, but continues to live in poverty. He tells his friends he has found it, but they don’t believe him.  They don’t believe him because he is still living in poverty a week later.  The way that he lives proves to them that he does not know what he is talking about or that he is crazy.

• The person who has been drawn by the Father comes and it changes their life, just like finding a pot of gold changes a poor mans life.

He says unless we come to him, we will not have eternal life. - 53

• The Jews asking these questions here were not Christians, because they did not believe what Jesus was saying.

Are you the one who has the pot of gold or do you just talk about it?