THE TABLE Part 3- Mike Matijevich -October 29, 2006

Intro: Buffet line (have diff types food - "what is it")
WHAT IS IT? Good question!

* Bckgr: The story @ Passover…
- God performed miracle after miracle—parted the Red Sea, - God’s people, though, began to enter the moan zone.

* I know how to do that! “We’re hungry."
- We wish we could eat the food back in Egypt, back in slavery.”
God did something that night- rained BREAD out of heaven.
Exodus 16:15a
“And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was.”

* God said, “Collect enough manna for the day.”
- Too much & it will rot- with worms. (Ex. 16:16-21)

** Jump over to the NT with me. Jesus was on a roll. He’d just done the Hebrew happy meal miracle when he fed the 5,000.
- He felt it and he ran away.
- He went across the sea to a place called Capernaum.

* Most important part, is the introduction.
* Jesus starts intro - interesting, "

John 6:25-26 Jesus was reading their e-mail -
He knew why they were there…

* You could feel his tenor as he talks about soulish hunger, spiritual hunger, a deeper hunger

John 6:27 - The #1 title Christ gives himself was the Son of Man.
(John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.)

* We don’t serve a sequestered savior.
* John 6:27 "
* They got all wigged out on the word "work"…
"labour" = WORK--- it is NOT WORKS, but a GIFT !

*John 6:28 They were thinking about their wants & desires …
Diet-driven NO exercise. "Feed Me" etc…

* I am doing series called the "table"…
- We want to build believers and we want to serve non-believers
(Loaf whole-grain bread)- Jesus slams their carnality..
John 6:29 Here is the work of God- believe NOT "do"…
Talk to the 1st chair - investigating…
- Belief= "total assimilation"
“I AM…”
John 8:12
“…the light of the world.” =truth; path, plan purpose for all of us
John 10:7
“…the door for the sheep. "THE DOOR" not "a" door (How we get to God)
John 10:11
“…the good shepherd.”
John 11:25
“…the resurrection and the life.”
John 14:6
“…the way and the truth and the life.” the meaning and the message that we all need.
John 15:1
“…the true vine."No life for branch if not connected to vine".

* They knew the Midrash- Moses made manna come down.
Ok- then you Messiah, so give us bread (physical)

* They DID NOT get it! He was right there.
John 6:35
“…the bread of life.”
John 6:32-35 Jesus continues to explain- Big "Mo" no mess with.
"Believe" = "We yield our desires, our plans, our strength, our everything to Christ."

*** John 6:36-44
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
* (Non-believer)-The aroma from the bread of life has drawn you.
* (Believer) here Heb 10:25 "commanded" (eat the bread)
* Some are confused- Manna mentality (it's $, sex, ???)
* You are what you eat! -(physically, spiritually)
John 6:51 - We receive him within, just like we receive food and drink
- A foreshadowing of his death, burial, and resurrection.
- A foreshadowing of the Table:
-Solomon's temple Shew-bread; Ps 23; Last supper.

* So we are what we eat?
* Have you eaten the bread of life?
John 6:58

1. Maybe you’re a believer. Do you have that manna mentality?
Or are you just kind of saying, “Feed me, feed me, feed, feed me?”
- But we’ve got to be diet and exercise people! (stench/worms)

2. Maybe you’re unbeliever.
- Maybe you’re investigating the claims of Christ.
You need, today, just to tell God what he already knows—that you are sinner and in need of a savior, that you want to take the bread of life, that you realize there’s a gnawing, low-grade awareness that there’s a hunger down deep that’s never been satisfied.

You thought the first, you know, thousand or hundred thousand dollars would do it. You thought having sex with that person would do it. You thought doing that drug would do it. You thought living in that house would do it. But it’s not there. You need the bread. You need the bread. Jesus is not going to take the bread and force it down your throat

3. Maybe you're a new Christian- diet & exercise- we need to have you grow.