Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway Chapel!

Happy Father’s Day!

Scripture

Pray

Intro

Jordan and Adri Floyd

Do you remember what is was like to be dating someone?

It’s exciting, you want to get to know this new person.

You’re fascinated by them.

Everything they do is interesting, fun, unique, exciting.

Imagine back to your first date…here’s what I bet you didn’t do.

You’re looking across from the person.

You’re enjoying their company.

“I looked you up on LinkedIn.

Did a lot of research about you.

Don’t say a word about yourself.

I know you already.

Here’s what you are…I like to think of you as funny, outgoing, you love all my hobbies and interests, you’re just like me in every way.

Obviously this is a joke.

What’s the point.

How is that interaction similar to how we approach Jesus?

How often do we learn things about Jesus, and impose our views on him, rather than asking him, “Jesus, tell me about yourself.”

That is going to be our goal the next couple months.

We want to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

We’ve come so far in our Year of Biblical Exploration in 2022.

We’re looking at the story of the Bible as a whole.

CONSIDER READING DEFINITION

We’ve gone through many nooks and crannies of the Old Testament, and we’ve come to the New Testament which is all about Jesus.

And the New Testament begins with four narrative accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” each in their own way.

“Who is Jesus?”

It is THE biggest question any of us will ever answer.

How do we go about answering such a massive question?

One way is to look at the gospel of John, which highlights 7 “I AM” statements of Jesus.

In the course of the gospel of John, Jesus says , “I am ____________” seven times.

He says I am

The bread of life

The light of the world

The gate

The good shepherd

The resurrection and the life

The way, the truth, and the life,

The true vine

And so for the next 7 Sundays we will walk through these and ask, “Who is Jesus?”

My prayer for us is not that we have the right answers about Jesus, or that we can nail a quiz, but that each of these messages allow us to experience the love of Jesus, be fascinated by him in a fresh way as we ask him to tell us about his heart.

Prayer

Let’s journey to John, the forty-forth book of the Bible, the fourth book in the New Testament.

Why was John written?

Just so people know stuff about Jesus?

John is written so you and I would believe.

Why?

So that we would have life.

Not to know facts so we can have knowledge, but to believe, and trust the person of Jesus so we can experience his life.

One of the stories John uses to persuade us to believe is in John 6. John chapter 6 is a part of a larger section of John 2-10 which tells stories of various miracles of Jesus.

In this section, Jesus performs a miracle, people are confused and don’t understand, Jesus uses metaphor and imagery to explain himself, and people are forced to ask themselves, “Who is Jesus?”

John 6 begins with a story of Jesus bending the laws of physics by feeding thousands of hungry people with a little boy’s lunchable.

After this miracle, a full but soon to be hungry crowd chases him down.

Who is Jesus?!

I have a hard time empathizing with this urgency.

I’ve got a full pantry and a freezer in my garage.

In ten minutes I can afford to fill up a cart at not one but TWO different Costcos.

However this need is not far from home, just last month the Sumner Food Bank fed 6,000 people.

Up over 400% from a year ago.

Interject on verse 25 because he walked on water!!

They’re chasing after Jesus because they believed he could give them what they want: food!

Jesus knows this and says as much in verse 26.

The crowd immediately calls to mind the story of Moses and the giving of manna in the wilderness.

Today we celebrate Juneteenth when federal troops arrived in Galveston Texas in 1865 to tell slaves they were free based on the Emancipation Proclamation signed two and a half years before.

In Exodus, we have a story of freed slaves on the run, the nation of Israel.

They, like black slaves in 19th century America, also learned freedom is a windy road.

They were hungry!

And they were complaining to God.

So God graciously gave them this flaky bread that fell from the sky, they have no idea what it was, so they called it manna, which meant “What is it?”

This is the first “I AM” statement of Jesus in John.

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”

What does that mean?

It could also be stated, ‘I am the bread which gives life.’

Bread in Jesus’ day was made of either wheat or barley.

Their loaves were of varying shapes and sizes.

Sometimes flat and round or in the shape of a modern rectangular loaf.

We think of bread as an option for food.

You could come to the membership class next Sunday and order a sandwich from Jimmy Johns, or you can go with an unwich and get salad instead.

You could get toast with your breakfast at Dixies, or you can go with a fruit cup.

In Jesus’ day, bread was a staple part of their diet, and was synonymous with food itself.

Jesus’ could’ve essentially said, “I am the food which gives life.”

Bread is an amazing image in the Bible.

There’s not many images that are more ordinary, and yet it provokes extraordinary meaning, and you can essentially track the whole story of the Bible with just the image of bread.

Jesus is meeting the crowd where they’re at…they’re hungry!

They want bread!

And Jesus takes that image and bakes up a perfect metaphor.

First point this morning,

Jesus satisfies.

In verse 35, Jesus is almost certainly quoting from Isaiah 55:1-2.

In any relationship, we have moments where we’re talking about the same thing, but we’re not talking about the same thing.

The crowd and Jesus are talking about food…but Jesus is talking about more than food.

He’s talking about their souls.

In the Bible, our souls - the all encompassing part of us that makes up the whole of who you are - is compared to your throat.

Jesus is saying, “I could give you food, but you’ll be hungry again tomorrow.

I am something more.”

Bread connects us to the beginning.

Adam and Eve were given all the food in the garden.