Jesus is Enough - John 6:28-34

I recently heard a story about someone running in an ultramarathon race, and at one point in the race, the course wasn’t very well marked. And so he’s running and running and running when race organizers catch up with him and tell him, “you’ve run like two miles off course!”

And not only did it completely ruin his time, but those sorts of races are all about conserving energy which also gets messed up if you run farther than you have to.

We’re all running a spiritual race, whether or not you recognize it, and staying on course in order to achieve the goal of salvation is what we’re all chasing after.

But it’s really easy to get off course!

In our passage we see the crowd asking Jesus what works they must perform to please God.

Which really falls in line with our natural inclination, which is that with every good action we perform we take one step closer to the pearly gates, and with every bad action we take one step away from the pearly gates.

And God is basically some version of Lady Justice, holding out his perfect scales in order to measure the good in your life versus the bad. Too much bad - and you’re on your way to hell, but enough good and you’re on your way to heaven! But how do we know what is enough?

Jesus completely rejects this mode of thinking in our passage, because there is a deeply flawed assumption in the crowd’s question to Jesus: they believe that their actions alone are sufficient to please God! They believe they can please God in and of themselves, they just need Jesus’ help with knowing what they should be doing!

Safe to say, the crowd’s assumptions are taking them off course.

How does Jesus respond? “... believe in him whom he has sent.”

The sufficiency to please God isn’t in our work, or in what we do, but rather in the finished work of Jesus Christ!

We really see how the crowd struggles with this, because first they trust in themselves (vv. 28-29), second, the crowd doubts Jesus (vv. 30-31), but lastly, Jesus affirms his own sufficiency (vv. 32-34).

Last week, we looked at verses 22-27, and it was abundantly clear that the crowd sought after Jesus for the wrong reasons. If you remember the build up to where we are now, after Jesus fed the five thousand, they sought to make him king, he hid from them, walked across the sea under the cover of night, caught up with his disciples, and has since been rediscovered by the crowd.

So in verses 22-27, Jesus is conversing with the crowd that has found him, and here in these verses he is continuing that conversation.

It’s also vitally important to remember why the crowd was so desperate to chase Jesus down: they were seeking him, “...not because [they] saw signs, but because [they] ate [their] fill of the loaves.”

They weren’t seeking Jesus out to sit under his teaching, they sought Jesus out in order for him to feed them. It was driven from their flesh and a sense of entitlement.

The crowd trusts in themselves. (vv. 28-29)

And now, we see the crowd’s response to that statement. That’s where our passage begins in verse 28. They respond to Jesus with, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

If you recall from last week, I pointed out that the word, “work” was going to be important for us. Because Jesus told the crowd in verse 27, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”

That’s the food that we all must pursue. Food that endures to eternal life. A spiritual food that doesn’t spoil and always satisfies. Jesus is essentially telling them, “Don’t chase the temporary satisfaction of your flesh, chase eternal satisfaction for your soul.”

He’s encouraging the crowd, by telling them what they should pursue. Interestingly, in verse 27, Jesus isn’t referring to the idea of earning your salvation or what we might call “works righteousness.” Rather, Jesus is using the word “work” in terms of being engaged with or occupied with, not literal tasks or jobs.

You might be wondering, Jake, you’re getting into the weeds a little bit, but this is very important. Because Jesus is saying one thing, but the crowd is hearing another. He’s being misunderstood.

Jesus is basically saying, “don’t pursue the things of this world,” to which the crowd responds, “then what task should we be doing?” That’s why they ask Jesus what works they must perform to please God.

One commentator put it like this, “The crowd misunderstands the thrust of Jesus’ prohibition. His words, ‘Do not work for food that spoils’ did not focus on the nature of work, but on what is or is not an appropriate goal. His point was not that they should attempt some novel form of work, but that merely material notions of blessing are not worth pursuing.”

Jesus’ comments weren’t really about work, but nevertheless, this goes completely over the crowd’s heads. So poor theology and misunderstanding fuels the crowd’s question in verse 28, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

In other words, what action must we take in order to please God?

But as I stated earlier, there’s a deeply flawed assumption buried inside that question: they believe they can please God. They assume they can do whatever God asks, they just need to know exactly what God requires. The crowd’s mindset is, “we can please God, we just need to know how.”

Isn’t it true that there is a big difference between what we believe is important and what is actually important? There’s a grave temptation to believe that busyness is the same as productivity. As long as we’re active we’re achieving something. But we know that isn’t true.

Sometimes we’re simply busy because we’re incapable of saying “no.” We’re afraid of disappointing others, so we say “yes” to everything and we’re always on the go, but we never get anything accomplished. You can be “busy” all day long, and never get anything done.

Some of you are employers, isn’t that a major frustration? An employee can spend all their time on meaningless tasks.

It’s like pulling an all-nighter studying for a big test only to realize you studied the wrong material. You were busy, but you were busy doing the wrong thing!

This really illustrates the issue with the crowd. They wanted to know what they needed to do to please God, but they’re asking the wrong question, aren’t they? They assume that their salvation is entirely up to them and what they do.

And it’s to their question that Jesus said in verse 29 “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

But notice how Jesus doesn’t respond to their question, because it’s not about their work. It’s not your work that you should trust in, rather it’s the work of God that you must trust in. Specifically, “in [Jesus] whom [the Lord] has sent.”

He’s taking salvation out of the crowd’s hands and putting it into the hands of the Lord.

This had to be quite disappointing because the crowd wanted to do something. They wanted Jesus to give them an action or a behavior to do.

They’re clearly expecting Jesus to say, “go to church every Sunday, never miss a prayer meeting, have an emotional response after every service, something like that. That’s what they want to hear.

Had Jesus given them an action, he would be teaching a version of “works righteousness” which would have reinforced the crowd’s wrong theology. Because the moment you play that game is the same moment the other person thinks… “I can do that!”

But obviously Jesus doesn’t go there. He says something completely unexpected. “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The work of God is redemption found only in and through Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection. You must believe in Christ’s atoning work by faith. It’s not any action that you take, it’s faith in the sufficiency of the actions that Jesus has taken - that’s what you must believe in.

That’s what Jesus said. It was rather shocking and unexpected. It sort of catches the crowd off guard.

This isn’t the best illustration so don’t over analyze it, but have you ever been watching a sporting event like football or basketball and every time one player touches the ball they score. And as you’re watching the game, you think, “that guy is on fire, just keep giving him the ball. As long as he has the ball, good things happen, they’ll definitely win.”

Then for whatever reason in the second half they go away from him. They stop giving him the ball. They try to get more people involved and things start to get bad and they ultimately lose the game.

Or do you remember that famous play that happened in the Super Bowl a few years ago, when the Seattle Seahawks threw it on the one yard line and it was intercepted and they lost the game? The crazy thing about that situation is their running back had rushed for over a hundred yards that game and they chose not to give him the ball on the one yard line.

The crowd seems to think that salvation is a team effort. They need to please God and if they know what they’re supposed to do, then God will have to save him. Their actions will leave him no choice. But that’s not the way it works. Salvation is a one man show and it’s a work of God from start to finish.

But you have to believe in that. You must trust that Jesus Christ is enough. Faith in Christ is relinquishing control, by trusting in his sufficiency to do it all. This is where the crowd is grievously mistaken. The crowd assumes they can save themselves.

The crowd doubt Jesus (vv. 30-31)

But again, since the fall, their instincts are natural, which explains why they’re so skeptical of the words of Jesus in verses 30 and 31. If Jesus is indeed greater than Moses and sent directly from God, then he should be able to perform a sign.

Look at what they say in verse 30: “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Okay Jesus, since you know so much, prove it! Prove that you’re from God, prove that what you’re saying is true! The hypocrisy is just dripping from the page isn’t it?

Because didn’t Jesus miraculously feed them like a day ago? He had just performed a miracle. Not only that, but it seems they already have forgotten why they originally chased Jesus down. They were hunting down a free lunch!

And how incredibly ironic that the crowd brings up the manna the Lord provided in the wilderness? They’re basically saying to Jesus, “we want you to perform a miracle, kind of like that time Moses provided manna from heaven…” Perhaps they were trying to bait Jesus into feeding them, but nevertheless, it is curious that they bring up how God miraculously provided manna for the Israelites to eat while they were in the wilderness.

After all, there is tremendous overlap between the Lord providing manna from heaven to the Israelites and Jesus feeding the five thousand. It’s surprising that Jesus doesn’t just say, “excuse me?”

But you can see the flow of their argument: If Jesus is greater than Moses, which he is clearly claiming to be, then he should be able to perform a greater miracle than Moses, and Moses had bread rain from heaven.

But the most ironic part of the crowd bringing up the manna is that they’re using this miraculous event in order to cast doubt on the words of Jesus! Jesus has already done exactly what they’re telling him he needs to do.

They want Jesus to validate his words by performing a miracle. It’s incredibly insulting!

But again, did you catch the issue in verse 31? “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

It seems like they’re quoting Psalm 78. Let me read Psalm 78:1-4 to you:

“Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, 22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. 23 Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, 24 and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.”

The crowd gives Moses credit for what God did! Moses didn’t rain manna from heaven, God did!

They give human hands credit for the work of God.

Far too often we give men credit for the works of God. We think that men deserve our praise and forget about the Lord just like the crowd.

Believers of all stripes have a tendency to do this: there’s someone that the Lord has used in our life, we’re grateful for them, and for whatever reason, they cross over into sainthood in our minds.

They’ve transcended ordinary humanity. And we put them on such a high pedestal that when they come crashing down, there’s an audible “thud!” How many evangelical leaders in the last 5 years have come crashing down? It’s a lot.

No doubt, sin, temptation, fallenness have a part, but have you ever wondered if there is more at play? Could it be that these great Christian leaders who have these epic falls from grace in order to remind us who’s in control?

And that whatever good came through their ministry was simply God working in and through them? But God can use anyone can’t he?

I recently came across an article that quoted my favorite Anglican priest, Richard Hooker. He said, “Wise men are men, and truth is truth.”

Isn’t that exactly right? At the end of the day wise men are just that, men - but truth stands the test of time.

Apparently he made that statement in reference to John Calvin. His point was that Calvin, although he had written many wonderfully helpful things, was still, at the end of the day, a fallible man.

Just like you, just like me, and just like Moses.

It’s not that great Christian people did wonderful things because of their upstanding morality, and pious behavior. Rather, they did wonderful things by the power of the Holy Spirit operating through them!

And this is precisely what the crowd misunderstood! It wasn’t Moses that gave their forefathers manna in the wilderness, it was God!

Jesus affirms his sufficiency (vv. 32-34)

And Jesus corrects them in verse 32 and totally redirects their gaze in verse 33. Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

It wasn’t Moses that gave them bread from heaven, but the Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

The true bread is “he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” And the crowd is still thinking literally in verse 34, “give us this bread always,” but that’s not what Jesus means.

Obviously Jesus is once again referring to his messianic mission, but notice the play on words.

Just as food gives you and me physical life, the bread from heaven gives spiritual life. The spiritual food that will sustain us, will never come through the work of our hands, rather it comes as a gift from God! It comes from heaven!

The crowd really thought that they could force God’s hand by simply doing whatever “work” Jesus told them to do. They’d have God over a barrel.

Because their great morality would require God to give them eternal life. There are so many morally good people out there. Who live exemplary lives. I was having a conversation with a few folks earlier this week. Mormons are excellent examples of this. Typically, they’re incredibly kind and respectable people. They typically raise wonderful children, who are very polite and well mannered. But they’re faith isn’t in Christ, they’re faith is in their moral actions. And that will never be good enough!

But do you see the problem with faith in your own works? Faith in your own personal works means that you’re in control. That you can do something about your eternal destiny.

But there’s only one work that’s made a path for your eternal destiny: Christ’s atoning, sacrificial work on the cross! That’s the work that you must believe!

The bottom line is none of us on our own are good enough. We’re all morally deficient. But Christ is more than sufficient to take away your sins, clothe you in his righteousness, and to make you holy before God. That’s why we must put our faith in Him. That’s exactly what Jesus said: “...believe in him whom [God] has sent.”

May we all do it today. And may we all do it forevermore. Let’s pray together.