God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

This week's sermon: "Behold, Believe, Be Raised"

The crowds ate Jesus' multiplied bread and were filled. But the next day, their stomachs were again empty, and their query to Jesus made it plain that they had missed the point of the loaves—that Jesus is the Bread of Life.

Jesus answered their request, which alluded to Moses and wilderness manna, with a double denial and an amazing offer. Denials: It was not Moses who gave the manna but God; and the ultimate point of the manna was not full tummies but something bigger—the "true bread" coming from heaven. Amazing offer: "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven."

Don't miss the word "you." Most of the crowd is not going to receive it. But Jesus says that God is giving it. This is the way Christians go to the world and speak to the world: "God has given you the bread of life. He offers it to you. It is free. Take it. Eat it."

Jesus then says explicitly that he is the one they hunger for: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." Jesus and all that God is for us in him is what we hunger and thirst for, and saving faith is being satisfied in him.

Verses 37-­40 then make at least 5 statements of God's sovereign working:

1. God gives his chosen ones to Jesus.
2. Because God gives them to Jesus, they come to Jesus.
3. Those who are given to Jesus and come to Jesus are omnipotently and eternally kept by Jesus. None is lost.
4. Jesus will raise us from the dead on the last day.
5. Finally, the unshakeable foundation for all this sovereign work of God—his giving, our coming, his keeping, his raising—the unshakeable foundation of it all (mentioned three times lest we miss it!) is the will of God.