Why do you seek Jesus? I would like to talk with you today about John 6:26-34. Jesus had just fed five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish. He sent His disciples away on a boat, slipped away from the people, met His disciples out at sea by walking out to them on the water. The people came looking for Him and found Him on the other side of the sea and asked Him how He got there; and so He answers them and has a discussion with the people, revealing their hearts, and why they truly came seeking Him.
So why do you seek Jesus? These were seeking Him because He fed them, and they wanted more food. Is this not what the prosperity gospel does today? Prosperity preachers attract men and women to come to Jesus to fulfill the desires of their hearts, which is health, wealth, and fame. This is just awful, and Jesus distances Himself from men such as these that desire to use Him for worldly gain. These men have taken the worldly American dream of being rich, healthy, and powerful and simply brought that into the church. Saying come to Jesus and you will have no problems, come to Jesus and you will have riches, come to Jesus and He will make you famous. Really!? You read the bible, you read the words of Christ and you get that out of it, seriously! When I read the bible, when I read the words of Christ, this is what I hear clearly and repeatedly; forsake all that this world has to offer and you will have riches in heaven, not the kind of riches this world offers, the Lord Himself is the pearl of great price, the Lord Himself is the treasure hidden in the field and He is worthy of selling everything for.
So these people came to Jesus seeking worldly things, and so He tells them “do not work for food which perishes, but for food which endures to eternal life.” Which you don’t have to work for at all, because if you come to the Son of God He will give it to you, nor can you work for, it is grace (unmerited favor), a gift. So they ask Him “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus said something that no man in his self-righteousness wants to hear, something that no man centered religion on earth can accept. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Then they prove that they did not get it when they again basically say, prove yourself by bringing bread down from heaven. Moses said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” These people wrongly thought that Moses had brought the manna down from heaven, “it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven.” So they thought when Messiah comes He would give them bread. Jesus repeatedly shows throughout His ministry that while the things that occurred in the past were a representation of Him, the things themselves are not. “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.” The manna was a representation of Christ coming down from heaven to give life. Christ wasn’t there to feed them food; He was there to give life everlasting through the sacrifice of His own body on the cross for the sins of men, for all who believe. So I ask you again, why do you seek Jesus? In meditating on these scriptures I have considered my own motives, I suggest that you do the same.
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
Quotes: (John 6:26-34, Deuteronomy 18:15, Matthew 9:16)
