Chasing the Dragon

October 31, 2011

Good morning, this sermon continues the sermon series going through the Psalms that are mentioned in the Gospels. Enjoy at the bottom or on iTunes.

Psalm 78:23-24 “God gave orders to the skies above, opened heaven’s doors, and rained manna on them so they could eat. He gave them the very grain of heaven.”

John 6:26-35 “Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

John 6:58 “This isn’t like the bread your ancestors ate and still died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Bread….Let’s talk about bread.

Bread has about 6 ingredients.

- Here they are on the screen

Bake 350   30-35 mins.

2 pkgs yeast (2 TBSP)

3 cups warm water

2 TBSP sugar

3 tsp. salt

2 TBSP shortening or oil

8 cups flour

Put yeast in l cup of warm water.  Mix sugar, salt and rest of water,

shortening. (I use a whisk.) Then add yeast.  Mix.  Add flour and mix well

Punch dough down at 10 min. intervals 5 times.  Put dough on floured board,

divide into 3 parts. Let rise 10 mins.  Roll ball into rectangle 12 x 9 and roll like jelly roll.    Put on cookie sheets (greased) sealed ends down.

Score top diagonally.  Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hrs.  Bake 350  30-35 mins.  Butter tops.

Then it takes time to rise, bake, cool….and then eat!!

This is a lot of work, back in the time of Jesus making one loaf of bread could take all day and was much harder to do than it is now.

Out of all this work is some amazing results. Fresh baked bread! Right out of the oven and the taste as it just sort of melts in your mouth and warms your core as you swallow it. Absolutely amazing!

And when you eat it, it becomes part of you. The nourishment in the bread becomes part of you. Some would say “you are what you eat”. It strengthens you, helps you to grow, energizes you, and makes you able to survive another day.

Bread is a basic building block of life. Without something as basic as bread you will die.

When you don’t have bread you will start to get the shakes, get headaches, maybe even get irritable. We all know people like this. They are the people that remind you of Oscar the grouch, screaming, hurtful, mean, and nasty. then you hand them some food and they are precious angels again……I like to call them 3 year olds.

When you see someone like that…..there is very little you can do. You can’t nourish them, you can’t fix them. If you try to be their nourishment you end up drained, exhausted, and hurt. All you can do is give them food. yet you aren’t food but you give them the things that actually helps them. You can’t force someone to eat you can only give them food.

I once tried to force feed my sister a candy bar….it didn’t go so well and we ended up grounded with chocolate melted into the couch, the ceiling, and the dog.

Yet another time I just gave her a mud pie I had made and because she was hungry she ate it.

Here is the deal with bread, no matter how much time you spend you will get hungry again. As nourishing as the bread is you will still get hungry again. No matter how much bread you give someone else, they will still get hungry.

No matter what nutrients you put in bread or how you flavor it the bread will not save your life.

No matter how good it smells it will still leave you hungry.

What Jesus is saying is that like bread Jesus is nourishment for you. It is not that Jesus gives you nourishment but that Jesus is the nourishment.

Jesus is nourishment for our soul. Jesus is where you find fullness. and without Jesus you are not filled.

Jesus then nourishes your soul and gives you the strength to go on when you don’t feel like you can take another step.

But Jesus goes further than that. Jesus says I’m not just nourishment for today to keep you satisfied. Jesus says “I am better than that.” or “There is more to me than just feeling good for today.”

Jesus says that he is real nourishment that gives you life forever.

Jesus when devoured in faith will keep a person alive forever.

Jesus says devour me….and you will be truly nourished, nourished with everlasting life.

All this comes right after the feeding of the 5k and according to verse 59 it is while standing in the synagogue at Capernaum.

Why is it significant at Capernaum that Jesus calls himself the bread of life?

At the time of Jesus the City of Capernaum was on the sea of Galilee and one of the busiest roads in the world, the Via Maris, passed right through it. People from all over the world took this road to get anywhere and Jesus had lived there during his ministry and this town was known for 2 things….fishing and BREAD! They would then sell this food to the people passing through the city on their way to the rest of the world. And so Capernaum became world renowned for their bread.

So here is Jesus standing in the church declaring that the bread they make won’t nourish like he will nourish.

this would make the towns people a little angry with his message because now he is insulting their very livelyhood because if someone else’s bread is better they won’t make as much money.

so it isn’t surprising when people who understand what good bread is ask for some good bread.

I think that is important. You know what it is to be nourished. You know what it is to be hungry. You want to be filled. So what we do is we search for that full feeling.

When we aren’t filled we feel empty….and so we go searching for some more bread, and more bread, and more bread, addicts call it chasing the dragon as we go looking for the ultimate nourishment.

What Jesus is saying is you have caught the dragon and the ultimate nourishment is right in front of you. He is saying this to people whose very livelihood depends on having good bread.

This bread that is Jesus Christ is the bread that changes you. Jesus changes you from the inside out. When you take it in suddenly you become more like Jesus. Suddenly and slowly you become more and more like what you are eating.

As the bread of life Jesus transforms you and makes you into him.

this is called sanctification, and it means you are becoming more like Jesus. That Jesus is making you more like him.

This kind of change is scary and we either embrace it or we grumble.

but one thing to remember we are like Jesus, we are not Jesus.

We can’t save anyone. We can’t even nourish them. Only Jesus can do that.

However, if we aren’t the bread of life, I would argue that we are the scent of bread.

Ever smell bread? Like all morning?

Even if you had a great breakfast and you now have a full stomach what is the first thing you want as soon as you smell bread…..BREAD!

Far too many people don’t know they need the bread of life. Far to many people don’t know they need everlasting life. We are called to remind them of that. To tell them there is something better than what they have been feasting on.

We are called to smell like bread.

So what do you smell like? Do you smell like warm bread? When people see you do their minds go to Jesus?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says we should follow Jesus so closely that when someone looks at us they don’t see us they see Jesus.

The question then becomes, do you need some new bread in your life? Have you been chasing the dragon of fulfillment all over trying to find something that will give you comfort for longer than a few hours? Then look to the Jesus who is standing before you who says in John 10:10 I came to give you a full life. Through Jesus, and only through Jesus, will you find a life that is full like your belly after a good meal and only through Jesus will your life stay full forever.

If you find yourself here this morning short on fullness in your soul. If the depth of your being is longing for a real fullness. Something that actually brings satisfaction instead of what you have been chasing then it is here, for you. At the cross Jesus was emptied so that you could be filled and then on Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus came back and is always living so that you can be filled with his presence forever. At the cross Jesus died, not only for you to be saved, but for you to be full, satisfied, and nourished. Now and forever. If you don’t feel that then perhaps you have stopped feasting on Jesus. Perhaps you have been a Christian forever but you have stopped feeling satisfied in Jesus, or maybe you have never known Jesus and you are so hungry that you have tried everything. Or perhaps you know your faith, you know your Jesus, but you don’t smell like Jesus. When people smell you their first thought doesn’t go to the bread of life?

If that is you then now we are going to give the opportunity to take, eat, and be filled and be transformed by the bread of life that was given for you. no matter what.

let us pray.

Sermon Audio