It’s All About FAITH!

It’s All About FAITH!



24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. 25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:24-33

There is an old story that goes like this: Far away in a lonely desert stands a water pump in the sand. You are a solitary traveler, and your canteen is empty and you come upon that pump. Tied to it is a hand written sign put there by someone earlier. The sign reads "I have buried a bottle of water to prime the pump. Don’t drink any of it."



"Pour in half of it to wet the leather seal. Wait, and then pour in the rest. Then pump. The well has never gone dry, but the pump must be primed to bring the water up. Have faith, believe. When you are through drawing water, fill the bottle and bury it in the sand for the next traveler.



Having come upon this pump in the desert with this sign and being out of water, what would we do Will we dig the water bottle from the sand and drink from it? Or will we believe and believing dare to pour that water, trust to put water into pump every drop of it down into the old trusty pump? Because we trust, we take a risk, both for ourselves and for the next person who will pass that way.



What will we do?



That story poses an interesting question for all of us. Do we believe and trust in that written message by the water pump, or do we only worry about our own thirst and drink from the water bottle knowing that the water will give us enough strength to go on? What would we do?



Now in the same way think about the words in the Bible. They are our words of salvation in the desert of life. They are our source of life, life for eternity. Do we believe in them, or will we try your own way?



Think about Jesus in the same way as the note in the desert and the words of the Bible, He is our salvation in the desert of life, our source of life, life for eternity. Do we believe what Jesus says is true for our life, or do we go our own way?



Our lesson this morning concerns faith. Someone in the crowd asked Jesus, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Jesus answered them, "Believe in the one he has sent.”



Faith can be defined as an obedient attitude to the will of God. And Jesus says faith is the work a follower of his should be about, having an obedient attitude in the will of God. Trusting and believing that the promises God has made for us through Jesus Christ are true.



Sometimes you and I get our work all mixed up. We think our work is salvation and so we try our hardest to save ourselves instead of trusting in God and being obedient to his will. It is as if we drank that bottle of water beside the pump instead of using it to prime the pump. We would be trusting in our own selves, our own resources for living, instead of trusting and believing in God and his promises.



Jesus tells us in this passage that salvation is a gift that is Bread of Life.



In verse 27 Jesus says: "But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”



Notice especially these words, which the Son of man can give to you, give, as the dictionary defines that word, it says " To make a present of a gift, To place in the hands of so as Jesus is the Son of Man will give us food, or salvation.



It is a gift, a present, something that is handed over to us with no strings attached. Something that God through his Son wants us to have, salvation. Notice Jesus doesn’t say anything about us working for this gift, or earning this gift, or achieving this gift for ourselves, but Jesus says he will give it to us, it is ours, a free gift.



Salvation is a free gift from God. Sometimes we want to try to earn that gift of salvation. But, when can you and I do enough for God to say to us that we are ready for salvation?? When would we be ready for God to say come?



We can safely say that none of us would ever be ready enough for God. None of us would be pure enough for God through our own efforts. But through Christ, God makes us ready for him.



Listen again to the words of Jesus: "the Son of Man can give you”. God makes us ready for him. God is doing the work, God is doing the action, God is giving us salvation through the body and blood of Christ. It is God’s gift to the children that he loves.



Our work as Jesus says is to believe in him who he has sent . Our work is to have faith in Jesus Christ who will give us salvation.



We don’t need to worry about our salvation, we don’t need to try and obtain it for ourselves. Our work is to believe that this promise of salvation is true for us. It is God who is steering the ship of life, it is God who is in control of our salvation, it is God who will welcome us home to him when our time on this earth is ended. Jesus wants us to believe that our salvation is secure in the hands of God.



It is like a ship which was returning from an overseas voyage entering the St. Lawrence River. A heavy fog enveloped the ship on all side, completely concealing the shores and all objects from the view of the passengers. Much to their amazement, the ship continued at full speed. They became frightened and considered such speed as extremely reckless on the part of the captain.



Finally, one of the passengers expressed concerns to the mate, demanding that the ship be slowed down. The mate listened, then replied with a smile: ’’Oh, don’t be afraid, the passengers need not be uneasy in the least. The fog extends up only a short way above the water and the captain is at the masthead, and is up above the fog and it is he who is directing the vessel."



In the same kind of way, Jesus is asking us to believe and trust in God as the captain of our ship directing us above all the foggy situations of life that we cannot understand. God is directing our ship of life because as captain God loves us and wants us to have a life that is abundant with all of his blessings.



Faith receives the gifts that God offers us. Faith believes in the promises of God, faith accepts God’s work of salvation as a gift.



It is like this pen I am holding in my hand. Let us pretend this is God’s gift of salvation. God places it in our hearts. We can do several things with it. We can let it sit there, and ignore God’s gift for us, we can close our heart around it a little bit, or we can grab a hold of it for our salvation. Or we can reject God’s gift for us.



But notice the pen doesn’t fall. That is because God never takes his gift away. We may reject it, we may ignore it, we may only slightly embrace it, but God’s gift remains true for us.



God’s gift remains in our hearts, because God is a loving God and God wants all people to be saved. As it says in John. 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." God wants us to accept this gift of salvation, God wants us to be his children, God has worked hard at convincing us of his good intentions for us. He showed us those good intentions in the form of his Son. He let the world kill his Son so that he could show us his great love, by raising him up on the third day. God is a God of love and He wants us to trust in that love, to believe in that love, to live with that love while we walk our journey on this earth.



Jesus says, "Believe in the one he has sent.” Believe in Jesus and believe in God the Father who sent him.



Far away in a lonely desert stands a water pump in the sand. You are a solitary traveler, and your canteen is empty and you come upon that pump. Tied to it is a hand written sign put there by some pilgrim. The sign reads "I have buried a bottle of water to prime the pump. don’t drink any of it."



"Pour in half of it to wet the leather seal. Wait, and then pour in the rest. Then pump. The well has never gone dry, but the pump must be primed to bring the water up. Have faith, believe. When you are through drawing water, fill the bottle and bury it in the sand for the next traveler."



We are a traveler upon the planet earth. We come across a book, a book with 66 other books in it, as we read it we see that it can give us the assurance, the strength and the conviction to live life to the fullest. But it asks us to surrender ourselves to someone else, to trust in the gifts this person is willing to give to us. What will we do?? Surrender, or rely on ourselves?



For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God...” Ephesians 2:8(NKJV)