「永遠の命に至るパン・イエス」 八月第三主日礼拝 宣教 2024年8月18日
ヨハネによる福音書 John 6章32〜40節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. We thank the Lord for the blessing of being able to offer praise and worship together with you this morning. A powerful typhoon has passed away, and yesterday we had cloudless blue skies, but the intense heat has returned. This week, there will be many days of rain, so the heat will be more bearable, but the heat and humidity are likely to continue. Please take care of yourself.
This morning’s worship service welcomed a youth evangelism team who came to Japan from Korea to bring God’s love and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and sang a special praise songs to show the glory of the Lord. Thank you very much. One of the songs they sang this time was “Hana mo,” a Japanese praise song that is often sung in the evening service and is the most praised Japanese song in Korea, I think. I watch on YouTube every week how Korean young people sing praise songs in Thursday worship service, and this “Hana-mo” is often sung, which makes me very happy.
There are many other wonderful Korean praise songs, and my personal desire and prayer is that they will be translated into Japanese and become popular in Japanese churches, and that Japanese Christians will offer them to the Lord at their church services and praise gatherings. We are also praising the Korean songs translated into Japanese at the evening service, and I hope you will join us.
As we continue our “Searching for God’s Will” series, we have been listening to the Gospel of John. Of the four Gospels, the Gospel of John uses the word “will” the most, and we can know God’s will for us. Knowing God’s will is directly related to living a life pleasing to God and living as God wants us to live.
In chapter 1, we heard that we are born according to God’s will, and in chapters 4 and 5, we heard together that the Lord Jesus took great joy in doing the will of God the Father and accomplishing the work of salvation rather than enjoying three meals, and that Jesus faithfully followed God’s will, even unto death on the cross. We listened. It was a work to save us and to give us eternal life.
In response to the question of what God’s will is, I quoted from the Gospel of John 3:16 and 17. That is, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent His Son into the world, not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” We heard that God’s will and truth is to save us who live in this world. In these words, we find the purpose and true meaning of God’s sending His Son to us as our Savior.
The word “will” is used repeatedly in this sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. However, there is one word that occurs more frequently in this sixth chapter than the word “will,” and that is the word “bread”. And verses 1-15 of chapter 6 describe the famous miracle in which Jesus feeds 5,000 men alone with five loaves and two fish. Having satisfied themselves, the crowd calls Jesus a prophet and wants to take him to make him their king, but Jesus retreats to the mountain alone. This is because Jesus is neither a prophet nor a king, but the Messiah and Savior sent by God to save those who believe in Him and to give them eternal life.
In chapter 6:22-59, which contains the passage we will be listening today, Jesus says the words “Very truly, I tell you” a whopping four times. Jesus always says, “Very truly, I tell you,” as a preface when he is about to speak about something very important. In other words, this is a very important passage. Please remember that.
The first and second “Very truly, I tell you” are found in verses 26 and 32, where Jesus tells the crowd, who are full of the bread he has given them, “Work not for food that perishes, but for food that does not perish forever, but leads to eternal life,” and encourages them to change their attitude of simply receiving the bread that God gives them. Jesus encourages us to change our attitude of only continuing to receive bread and blessings given by God, and to take the initiative in working for God’s use. We should not be in the disposition to be a customer forever.
Here, the bread called “manna” that God gave to the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan is mentioned, but this bread was given by God in mercy to the Israelites as a whole, and was not earned by the people through their work. Jesus exhorts the crowd to stop being passive and consumeristic and to be more active in God’s work and work for God’s use.
The crowd asks Jesus in verse 28, “What must we do to do the works of God?” to which Jesus replies, “Believe in him whom God has sent, and that is the work of God.” When the crowd says “the works of God,” “works” (erga) is plural in the Greek Bible. But when Jesus says “the work of God,” the word (ergon) is singular. The Jews thought that there were many works they had to do to please God, and that they had to keep each of the 613 laws, but Jesus says that there is only one work that is pleasing to God, and that is “to believe in Jesus, whom God has sent, as the Messiah and Savior”. Jesus said that there is only one work that is pleasing to God.
We, like the Jews, believe that we can be saved by doing more good works than others, and we work hard at those good works. However, when we are faced with our weakness and inability to do all the good works, we may become disappointed and discouraged with ourselves and turn away from faith in God. However, Jesus is fully aware of our weakness. Therefore, he invites us, “Do not rely on your own strength, but believe in me”. He gently invites us, “I am the Savior sent by God for you, believe in me and follow me”.
Believing in Jesus as Savior, that is the only and highest work that pleases God. There is great joy in heaven. For us, too, it is a grace that gives us joy and excitement. But what is the most difficult thing in the life of faith for us? It is to continue to believe in Jesus throughout the remainder of our lives. In Japan, the seed of the gospel has been sown in various ways, and many people have believed in Jesus, and even now there are many who are trying to believe and follow Him, and many who are seeking salvation. However, Satan tries to steal away our faith and keep us away from God and His love in various ways. He tries to tempt us by showing us flashy things and whispering sweet words to draw us away from God and Jesus.
Perhaps the most difficult thing we find in our lives of faith is to continue to believe in Jesus. We lack confidence in ourselves and in our ability to keep the faith. God knows this so well that He sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be near us. Therefore, believing in God’s mercy, believing that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always with us to help us, believing that they will fight with us against Satan and give us victory, and continuing to believe with the Lord day by day throughout our lives.
The way to keep believing in Jesus, is to receive His life, which He says, “I am the bread of life”. We must always look up to the cross of Jesus and believe that His death on the cross was for my salvation, to pay for my sins, to free me from the fear of sin and death, to make me a child of God, and to give me eternal life, and we must thank and praise the Lord.
Jesus said in chapter 6, verse 35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” In reading the Bible, we are to listen to Jesus’ words and receive them always, morning, noon, and night, as the bread of life and the water of life, to be nourished and to gain growth. The repetition of this is to continue to believe, and it will be a life filled with joy, a life that God is pleasing with.
Let us repent today and become believers in Jesus and followers of Him, so that we will not continue to be unbelievers, ignoring the fact that we see God living and working in the world today, accomplishing His works of love. Let us not be those who think that our feelings toward God and Jesus are not strong enough or that we have not yet come to faith, but let us respond to Jesus’ calling by believing only in Him who loves us and promises to transform us anew.
Verse 37 says, “Everyone whom the Father gives to Me will come to Me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me,” is a firm promise and encouragement. And as verse 39 says, “The will of Him who sent Me is that I should not lose any of those whom He has given Me, but that they should be resurrected at the last day,” once Jesus holds our hand, the connection can never be broken. To be united with God’s love is to be kept alive by such a strong love.
The words of verse 40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I will raise him up at the last day,” are Jesus’ own rephrasing of John 3:16 and 17. Jesus Christ, our Savior, walked this earth not to do His own will, but to faithfully do the will of God the Father. Let us who believe in Jesus as our Savior also walk as those who do the will of God and Jesus while being kept alive by grace on earth, and live as those who share the bread that leads to eternal life.