while you remain standing if you'll just grab your Bibles if you have them with you and turn with me over to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 22 through 27 today. So this is our third week in John 6 and we'll be on verses 22 through 27. This is the word of the Lord. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. However, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum. seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. Let us pray. God, we thank you for your goodness in setting your seal on Christ. Lord, we thank you for revealing us your word, for showing us through your word who you are, for giving us this section of text that we might look at you and learn how to rightly follow you from the heart and trust in you as our sovereign Lord and Savior. God, I pray that as we are listening to the ministry of your word, God, that you would pierce our consciences, that you would go straight to the very inner core of our being, that you would preach to each person sitting in this congregation today, that they would be called to renewed repentance and faith. God, I pray for myself that you would only let me speak that which is true, that which is in accord with your word, that rightly reflects what you're trying to say to us here in this passage. God, I pray that if I begin to say anything that is off course or heretical or anything that's distracting from you, God, I pray that you would just veer me back to the right path. that you would keep me focused so that I might glorify you through preaching God. Lord, be with us now and bless us in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, our sermon today will have four elements that we're going to focus on from this passage. First, a rebuke from Christ that we see, a rebuke from Christ. Secondly, a prohibition from Christ, third, an instruction from Christ, and then finally, most gloriously, a promise from Christ, a rebuke, a prohibition, an instruction, and a promise. Now to really understand what's going on here in this passage, it's helpful to look back and see what has happened so far in John chapter 6. Jesus and his disciples had traveled to a mountainside by the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps they were taking some time to prepare their hearts for the Passover, which John tells us in verse 4 was at hand. The Passover was coming soon. Maybe they were getting ready for a special time of instruction, private instruction from Christ to his disciples on the mountain. Or maybe for a time of fervent prayer together or confession of sin to one another. We don't know what they were doing. But as we continue to read in John 6, we learn that the time together would actually involve a great number of people. Possibly a crowd as large as 20,000 or even more had gathered around Jesus when he and his apostles went up on this mountain. And the crowd came because they had seen the wonderful signs and miracles that Christ had been doing, especially in his healing of those who were sick. They were not coming to seek Jesus for himself because they necessarily believed that he was the Messiah, the King of Kings. They were coming out of a concern for seeing something exciting. for being entertained, perhaps for being healed themselves of whatever sicknesses or diseases they were suffering under. They were not hungering and thirsting for righteousness. No, this crowd was mainly coming, John tells us, because they saw the signs. They thought that Jesus was an exciting miracle worker. and they wanted to have a part in this ministry. Well, instead of just giving in to the whims of the mob that came seeking these signs, instead of doing exactly what they wanted him to do, Jesus first took this opportunity when a great crowd had gathered around him to preach. Jesus was indeed a miracle worker, but more importantly than that, he says that he was a teacher and a preacher. He came proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God. And anytime a crowd would gather around him, he would always take that as an opportunity to teach about God. It was far more important to Christ to ensure that people's souls were healthy than that their bodies were healthy and whole. Nevertheless, Jesus is also the one we know who created the physical world. He's the one who upholds and sustains the physical world. He is the one who governs everything that we can see and all the things that we can't see as well. He is the one who, in fact, will one day on that last day fully redeem and recreate this physical world. The end of all things is not to be floating disembodied in heaven on a cloud. The end of all things is to be here in the new heavens and the new earth. So Jesus cares about this world. Jesus cares about your bodies. He cares about this life that you're living. He cares about your pains and your illnesses, and he cares about your physical weaknesses. And as we see in this miracle that we read about recently, he cares about your hunger. So he does put first things first. He addresses the soul first, but then after doing this, after feeding the great crowd of people's spiritual food, he then also shows compassion by feeding them physical food through the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. And now after he feeds the crowd, he at that point says, okay, now it's time for you to leave. You need to go away. He bids even his disciples to leave him, to go over the sea to Capernaum without him. And he himself goes back to that mountain where he originally was to spend time alone with God in prayer. Well, His disciples obey Him. They get into the boat and they set off. And because of that obedience, Christ blesses them with His comforting presence and a great show of His divine power when He walks over the water to them and then brings them safely to the other shore. But some of the crowd we see did not obey Jesus when he commanded them to go on their way. Rather, they must have stayed right where they were or very nearby because the next morning they get up and they begin looking for Christ once more. They had let him have his alone time on the mountain after he fed them, but now they want him back. It's time for another meal, perhaps. So they go looking for Jesus. There's apparently no sign of him anywhere near where he taught and fed the people on the day before, and they think, what in the world could have happened? Where could Jesus have gone? They know that he didn't cross over in the boat with his disciples the night before. And they know, our text tells us, that there weren't any more boats available for him to use. They figure, okay, well, since we don't see him here, let's go over to Capernaum and see what we can find out there. After all, that's where it seems that his apostles went. Maybe they know what's going on or maybe we can find him. Maybe he joined them there somehow. And when they get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they are still, even though they were looking for Jesus, they are amazed that they found him. So they come up to him and they say, Rabbi, when did you come here? We didn't see you come over here. What happened? Reading in between the lines, it's more like they were saying, teacher, how in the world did you get over here? How did you pass these several miles of this Sea of Galilee and arrive on this side? There were no other boats you could have taken. How is this even possible? As we've seen several times before in John's gospel, Jesus doesn't answer their question in the way that they were hoping. Look with me now. Chapter 6 and verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Jesus does not tell the people when He made it over to Capernaum like they wanted. He does not tell them how He made it over to Capernaum. It's to remain a mystery for them. He cuts through all their vain curiosities and the surface-level questions and concerns, and He goes straight to the heart of the matter. What do I mean by that? What's the heart of the matter? They're just asking Him how He got there. This is an eager crowd, after all, who just wants to know more about Jesus and His marvelous works, is it not? Well, when Christ calls a man, he says, follow me. We've already seen him say that here in John's gospel multiple times. That's our invitation and our command to follow Jesus. That's what everyone should be doing with their life is following Jesus. And this great crowd, they are following him. That would seem like a good thing. Further, we're commanded throughout Scripture to seek God. We see that phrase coming up over and over. Seek the Lord. God tells His people through Moses that even when you find yourself far away from God, even when you're being oppressed in a foreign land, not your own, as a result of your disobedience, even when you are wallowing in your covenant-breaking sin, just like a pig wallows in the mud, when you are serving the other gods even, who are not God's at all. Even from that moment and from that place, Moses says, but if you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. God says the same thing in Jeremiah. He says, after you've been in exile for your entire life, many of you, he says, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. God's Word even tells us in Hebrews that in order to please God, we have to have faith, of course. And that starts with believing, one, that God exists, and two, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So the crowd here is following Jesus. They followed Him over the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, which is no small little pond. They are seeking Jesus. They're looking high and low. They've even organized, as it were, a search party to find this missing miracle-working rabbi. We could even say that they are diligently seeking Him. Whatever plans these people had for the day clearly must have gotten canceled. This would have taken quite some time. They spent money. They had to hire boats and take a several mile journey across an inland sea to go search in another town for Christ. That's diligence. Nevertheless, all that, you know, understood, Jesus is not pleased. He's not pleased with their efforts. He is not impressed. Jesus, they say, when did you come here? And Jesus, He rebukes them. He says, Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. This must have stung quite deeply to a man they looked up to so much. They had just been fawning over this man the day before. They had been trying to make him king. They were hanging onto Jesus. They didn't want him to leave. They've been searching for him for the better part of a day now. And he says, most assuredly, or as the King James renders it, verily, verily, that's a more literal translation, truly, truly, you're seeking me for all the wrong reasons. He's saying it's as certain as the sun is going to rise tomorrow that you seek me, not because you saw the signs, but because I filled your belly. Jesus could have answered them by saying, well, crowd, I came here last night. I walked right across the water. I joined my disciples in their boat and then we came to shore. And then he might have added, but I answered your question, but I'm concerned about the why. Why are you spending so much effort in looking for me? He could have said something like that, but he doesn't. He doesn't do that. He doesn't soft pedal his rebuke here. He doesn't do the compliment sandwich where you start with something nice to say about the people, then you insert the criticism and then you end with something nice to make them feel good. He doesn't do that. He says, most assuredly, you are only seeking me because you think I'm going to give you another free meal. That's what he says. This is why even today, a lot of people seek after Jesus. They think that if they find Jesus, he will solve all their earthly problems and give them a nice, easy life. He'll give them all the things that they want in this life. I want this and I want that. And Jesus, you're just like my magical miracle worker who can give me whatever I want. I want good food, nice clothes, no debt, big house, fancy car. So I'm going to seek after Christ. They think that Jesus is like an ATM rather than a Lord to be submitted to and obeyed. This is the great error of what is today called the prosperity gospel. And the lie of the prosperity gospel is that the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news that we proclaim, is that he came so that you could live your best life now. Now, it's absolutely true that Jesus transforms our lives and blesses us in more ways in this life than we even realize. But our best life is not now. Our best life is the life to come, in the new heavens and the new earth, when there's no more sin or sickness or sadness or death. Jesus isn't interested in followers who are only seeking him because they think he's going to fill their bellies and their bank accounts. He's seeking those who will worship him in spirit and truth. And this is a particularly interesting rebuke that he gives here when we look at it closely. Jesus tells the crowd that they aren't even looking for him because of the wonderful signs that he had done. We're supposed to look for Jesus, the Bible's so clear, because he's the Lord of lords and the King of kings, not just for what we can get from him, not just because of the miracles that he can do. Jesus has already rejected some people earlier in his ministry because they were only seeking him because of the miracles. John chapter two, right at the end, The apostle writes this, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. Many people saw the signs and they believed in Jesus. But, next verse, Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man for he knew what was in man. These people believed in Jesus. They said, we believe you. We believe you're the Lord. We believe you're the anointed one. He said, no, no, no. You don't believe in your heart and you don't submit to me. You just like that I am a miracle worker. He rejects them. He did not entrust himself to them. Jesus can see straight into the heart of every single one of his people. Every single one of his people that he created, every single one of his people that he is redeeming, he can see right into the heart of everyone that's following him. And if you're following him just because he can do amazing things like walk on water or heal the sick or raise the dead, then he will not accept you as one of his true disciples. But here in our narrative today, Jesus basically says, you're not following me because your heart is in the right place. And you're not even following me because of the miracles that I can perform. You're not even following me because you think that I am powerful. You're only following me because I fed you. These people's motives we're seeing here that followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, they're even lower motives than those who followed him because they thought he was a mighty miracle worker. The crowd that didn't obey him when he said to disperse after he fed them, the crowd that stayed until the next day and sought him further, he says, your motives are worse than those that left. They were seeking me for the signs. I'm already not going to accept them if that's all they're doing. But you're even worse than that. You're not even seeking me for the signs that I do. You're just seeking me because you were hungry and I gave you food. These people, Jesus could have hauled in a full, amazing dinner for them on a caravan of camels. And I don't think they would have had any different reaction than when he created food out of thin air. They don't care about the how of what Jesus was doing. They don't care what the miracle taught about Jesus. They just care about having their physical earthly needs met. They cared about a free meal and Jesus would not have it. He wanted their hearts. It's interesting how Jesus is so different from many of our rulers today. Politicians today sell themselves with the exact tactics that Jesus is rebuking here. When someone's running for president, they always promise the same things. I'm going to make your life more affordable. I'm going to take grocery prices and take them down. I'm going to make it easier for you to buy a home. I'm going to give you a free cell phone. I'm going to give you 40 acres and a mule. I'm going to give a chicken for every pot. These are all real things that our politicians have promised us throughout the years. The product might change slightly over time, but they all tend, all politicians tend to try to convince people to let them rule over them by promising to feed them. This big crowd would have responded very well to our politicians. I don't know who they would have chosen, but whoever said most convincingly, I'll make your food affordable, they would have followed them. They would have tried to make them king. Remember, that's what they were trying to do to Jesus because he fed them. They said, well, you obviously must be a good candidate for king. And Jesus absolutely refuses, and He rebukes them for even thinking that way. But Jesus doesn't just leave it there. He's not just a shock and awe preacher who just rebukes, rebukes, rebukes, you're going to hell, you're going to hell, and never offering any opportunity for escape. No, right in line with His mission, Jesus sees a teachable moment here. So He starts with the rebuke, but then He continues, and He elaborates, and He tells them more. And it leads to our second point today, which is a prohibition from Christ. And the prohibition is this, don't labor for the food that perishes. Let's look back at verse 26 of our text one more time, if you still have your Bibles open. Verse 26, most assuredly, Jesus says, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life. Now, what is Jesus talking about here? Is he saying we're not supposed to labor for our earthly food, only for heavenly food? I don't need to go to work. I don't need to provide for my family. I don't need to try to make money. No, no, no. Jesus is definitely not saying that. Jesus does not want you to ignore. your earthly duties so that you can spend all day in prayer and meditation and Bible study. God despises idleness. Even when that idleness is covered over with a veneer of spirituality, He despises it. He despises those who think that they shouldn't provide for their families so that they can allegedly devote themselves more fully to God. God even tells us in His word that those who do not provide for the members of their own household are worse even than unbelievers. And if someone will not work, then he should not even have the privilege of getting to eat. Working for our food is not a result of sin. Rather, it's part of the original design for mankind. We can see this in the creation ordinances. The creation ordinances are mandates that are written into the very fabric of our being. They were given to Adam and Eve when they were still happy and holy in the garden before sin entered the world and death through sin. These commands tell us how we are to live rightly in God's world, and they show us the path to true human flourishing. These ordinances are the procreation of children, filling and subduing of the earth, taking dominion over the creatures, keeping the Sabbath, marriage, and working. Working was part of the plan from the beginning. And none of these ordinances cease to be now that Christ has come. We don't stop doing these things because Christ has come. So you see that even in our state of moral integrity, even in our complete innocence before God, we were still expected to work and rest, to till the ground, to cultivate the crops, to build homes and cities, to create things. We were made to work. And one of the main things that we were made to work for was our food. Adam was a gardener. He was a farmer. We were to work for our food. And before Adam fell into sin, he worked. He worked in the garden. It was just very productive. It was very joyful. It was non-frustrating work. That sounds so wonderful. Think about that. You plant the seed, you get a hundredfold. You go to work, everything falls into place. Everyone responds to your messages. Every one of your employees shows up on time and does exactly what you say with a smile on their face. This would be wonderful. You get your paycheck in the mail and whoa, there's a surprise bonus. It yielded more even than you thought you put in. It'd be wonderful. It's not that way anymore, sadly, but work was part of the design. So when Jesus says, don't work for the food that perishes, he's not saying, don't do any work for your food and just expect that you're gonna walk in and open up your fridge and it's gonna be full and overflowing and you're gonna open up your oven and there's gonna be a hot, ready to eat meal coming out of it for you. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is don't labor only for your body. Don't labor only for your body. Don't spend all your efforts on getting your daily bread without any thought about food for your soul. Don't think that this life, this life that we're living, don't think that that's all that you're working for. Don't lay up for yourselves treasures here on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Rather, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, treasure that will never wear out and that no one can take from you. Don't make the mistake that so many people do of thinking that because you have to work for your food, that that is all that work was created for, for the things of this life. Jesus is saying, don't devote yourself to working to acquire earthly possessions and earthly security as if that was the greatest good in the world. How many people, especially for the adults in this room, maybe you've reflected this in your own life where you've seen or heard someone say, maybe especially when they're getting older and perhaps even getting to the end of their life, seen or heard people say that they regret all the time they spend at work. You know, no one ever on their deathbed says, I wish I had one more hour at the office. Now, sometimes that might just be sentimentalism. You know, they did have to go to work, but I think often it's a real true raw reflection that I just, I wasted my time. I wasn't efficient. I didn't work hard. I neglected my family. So many people neglect their families for the sake of their jobs. All the while thinking that they're serving their families by providing for them, but maybe they're only providing daily bread and man can't live by bread alone. Think work, work, work, work, work. I'll build up this bank account as if that could save you, as if that could help you when you get a cancer diagnosis, as if that could help you when your son or daughter walks away from the truth of the faith. The bank account is not going to help you in those scenarios. I once heard someone say that he spent his entire life climbing the ladder of success, and he did very well. He made it to the top, only to realize that it was leaning against the wrong building. He had been just pursuing all the wrong things. He did very well at pursuing the wrong things, but how he regretted it when he got to the top. Jesus sees that this crowd has been following him, that they've abandoned everything else that they had going on for the day. And they're seeking after him because he thinks or I'm sorry, because they think he can provide their earthly desires. And he warns them. He says, don't just go chasing after the things of this world. Don't let your belly be your God. Don't work only for your food. Labor instead, he says, for the food which endures to everlasting life. That's the third point of our sermon today, that Christ not only rebukes his followers, he not only prohibits them from something, but he also tells them the right way to go. It's not just, no, no, no, you're wrong on everything, but he lays out the correct path for them. He says, labor for the food which endures to everlasting life. Now, what is that food that endures to everlasting life, we might ask? Well, I think there are two things here that Christ is referring to and commending to us. First and primarily, the main thing that Jesus is instructing here is that we labor for the satisfaction of our souls and the souls of those around us. Our bodies will die and be buried in the ground and they will decay. And when we are dead, it will not matter how full our bellies got each day. What will matter is whether in this life we hungered and thirsted for righteousness and found our satisfaction in Jesus Christ. Augustine, the church father and pastor theologian who was so influential on our Protestant reformers, he said that our souls are restless until they find their rest in Christ. We hustle around looking for other things that will give us rest, but Augustine says, no, you can only find your rest in Christ. Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician and physicist said that there is this craving that we all have, this helplessness, this hole inside of each one of us that proclaims that at one point there must have been something there. There must have been a time when man was happy. And people go through their whole lives trying to fill this massive void with everything they can. They try to fill this void in their life with money, with food, with friends, with romance, with clothes, with sports, with prestige, trying to find that satisfaction and that true happiness and peace. But Pascal says none of these things can fill the hole because it is actually an infinite abyss that can only be filled with an infinite and immutable object, namely God himself. And Jesus is telling this crowd here, He says, don't just work to fill your bellies because even if you eat as much as you could ever want, you'll still be hungry not too many hours later. And even if you acquire as much money or as many things as you could ever dream of, you still won't be satisfied because it's not everlasting. Everything has an end date. John D. Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire, once was asked, how much money is enough? Richest man on earth. How much money is enough? And he responded, just a little bit more, just a little bit more. He just wanted a little bit more. Even the richest men on earth do not have enough money to make them happy. This world cannot satisfy you. So don't give your life to making it try to do that. Give your life instead to working for the world to come. It is true that you do not have to work for your salvation. Salvation is a free gift, not to him that wills or him that runs, but to God who has mercy. Salvation cannot be earned. It cannot be merited. It cannot be bought. It is a free gift. You could never labor enough to save yourself, even if you lived for a million lifetimes. You can't work enough to earn your spot in heaven. But on the other hand, God has ordained that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for He is the one that works within us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. We are saved by grace alone apart from works. That's absolutely and totally true. But we are also commanded in Scripture to strive for holiness. to repent of our sins, to arise from our sleepiness, to come to Christ, to follow Jesus, to pick up our cross daily and follow Him, to be converted, to labor in prayer. We are told that the kingdom of heaven is for those who take it by force. We are to wrestle with God. These are all very active things. God says, we have to work. We have to work. Think of that song that we sing sometimes, the son of God goes forth to war. It said that the saints of God climbed the steep ascent to heaven through peril, toil and pain. This life is a life of working, but it is not a working in our own strength. And it's not working to gain God's love. It is a life of working by the power of the spirit in response to God's love. So use all the means appointed to you to seek the good of your soul. Go to church, read the word, wake up early to pray, share the gospel with others, flee from even the opportunity to be tempted. Crucify your sin, discipline your body and your mind. Do not let your master return and find you idle. Spend your life working for the good of your soul and for the good of others' souls around you. Don't just put in extra hours at your job so that you can squirrel away more money for retirement, but put in extra effort and extra hours, as it were, working for the kingdom so that you will not be disqualified in the race of faith, so that you will win the crown of life and enter into a heavenly mansion bursting at the seams with treasure. That's the primary meaning here for laboring for the food which endures to eternal life. Work for the things which last. Work out your salvation. And I think a secondary meaning is this. When you're working with eternity in mind, when you're working to please the master, to do good to your soul and the souls of others, every little single task can be infused with enormous meaning and value and worth. Everything. When you have Christ within you, there are no meaningless tasks that you do. Maybe you're cleaning up the 18th spill of the day and you're thinking, we have spilled a whole gallon of milk today. I'm tired of cleaning up. We don't even have any more clean towels. You're thinking, what is the point of this? the floor is just gonna get messy again anyway. But when you remember that Christ came not to be served, but to serve, and that God has given you someone in your life that you can serve with joy and gladness, then that towel in your hand becomes a tool to bless someone else to the glory of God. Maybe you're studying for a test on a subject you think could not possibly be more useless or boring if it tried. But you remember that Christ has given you an opportunity to learn more about his world, or to show your unbelieving teacher that Christians are a hardworking, diligent people, or to position yourself for a job that can open doors for you to make a bigger difference in life than if you just didn't care about your academics. That test then becomes more bearable. One of my favorite lessons, maybe one of my favorite quotes even from all of church history, this is up there at the top for me, comes from Martin Luther. Luther wrote that in the Middle Ages, being married and having children was regarded as a mere earthly work, something dirty, something that some people did have to engage in. But it was regrettable. It was a necessary evil to keep the human race alive. People thought it would be far better in the Middle Ages if everyone could be single and just devote themselves to prayer. Luther smashed through this unbiblical nonsense. For Luther, the family was central to all of life. All of life. Even the most mundane tasks he saw as infused with eternal meaning. He has a lot of great quotes about these mundane tasks and how God works through the hands of the milkmaid and works through the hands of the cobbler making shoes. But my favorite one is this. He says, when the husband is out washing the baby's diapers and hanging them up to dry, Because if you children don't know, back in those days, you didn't throw the diapers away. Someone had to, with their hands, wash out these dirty diapers and hang them up to dry. It was someone's job. Luther says, when the husband is out in the back washing out those dirty diapers, the neighbors will often laugh. They would think, look at this guy. Look at what he's reduced to. What an unmanly job, washing diapers. What an earthly task that will just be undone again in the next hour. How dirty, how low class, how meaningless. And Luther defiantly said to say this or think this when the neighbors laugh at you. He said, let them laugh for God and his angels are smiling in heaven. Even when you're doing the most mundane, maybe the most disgusting, maybe the most meaningless in your mind task. Remember, when you do it with a joyful heart, God is in heaven looking at you and he is smiling. His countenance is shining upon you. He is happy with what you are doing. God is happy with you when you do even the most earthly seeming tasks out of love for him and out of love for your neighbor. When you're cleaning out the chicken coop, remember that you are working on one of those creation mandates to take dominion over every animal. You were working to provide good, clean food for your loved ones when you clean out that chicken coop and when they peck at you and you're just like, this is so disgusting. You were doing God's work. When you smash your finger with a hammer and think, God, why am I out here hammering these nails in the cold? You can remember that Jesus was a carpenter too. And he did eternal work, not just earthly work, when he was in his father's workshop. When you are stuck on a computer for 12 hours a day, and you feel like all you've done is respond to angry emails, remember that when you do good works, especially before your unsaved, carnal, earthly-minded friends and employees and others around you, God says that some of these people might see something different in you. That they might see your good works, and because of that, realize that they ought to give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So Jesus is first commending this seeking after laboring after this food that will endure. He's first committing that we work directly for the salvation of our souls and the souls of others. And then secondarily, I think he's telling us that even when you're doing the most earthly tasks, when your heart is in the right place, they can have everlasting fruit. John Wesley even said that we should try in this life to gain as much money as we can because money in the hands of a believer can be converted to make sight for the blind, food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, health for the sick. Everything you do in this life, Christian, will echo in eternity. So work for the food which endures to everlasting life. Even when that work looks a lot like all you were doing is punching the same time clock over and over to make sure your bills are paid and bread is on the table, keep working. And then the final thing I want us to look at this morning is the promise from Christ. This is the best. These four different points get progressively better. You're rebuked, you're prohibited from something, you're told what to do, and then the best of all, you're promised something wonderful. Let's look one final time at verse 27 to see this. Verse 27 of John chapter six. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. Jesus says that when you labor for the food that endures to everlasting life, you don't have to wonder whether your work is going to yield anything. There are a lot of things in life, young people, as you grow, that you might put all your effort into. You might try to run down one path and work hard for it, and it yields nothing. Or it yields negative. You end up going into debt that you have a hard time recovering from. You can put your blood and sweat and tears into different efforts in this life and end up with just nothing but dust in your hands, nothing but thorns and thistles. You can work hard to till the land up, to plant the seed, to water and weed, and sometimes nothing grows. Nothing grows. Sometimes you just end up empty-handed. But Jesus here promises you something. He says that if you truly seek his kingdom, you will find it. That's a guarantee. If you seek his kingdom, you will find it. If you labor for the food which endures to everlasting life from a pure heart, then the son of man, that's Jesus, will give it to you. You will get the food that endures to everlasting life. You will not be empty-handed on judgment day if you have trusted for Christ and live for him. Jesus says we have a guarantee of this. He says that God himself has guaranteed our seeking after eternal life will not be in vain. And he has done this by setting his seal on Jesus Christ. What does that mean? What does it mean that God set his seal on Jesus Christ, thus guaranteeing everlasting life? That means that God has set Christ apart for this special work of securing our eternal salvation. He is the elect one. God has put his seal on Christ, marking him as specially designated to save us from our sins. When a king put his seal upon someone, either by giving someone his signet ring or by giving him a letter that has his seal impressed in hot wax on it, that meant that that person belonged to the king and had the king's authority to do whatever he was appointed to do. Christ has been sealed by God the Father. He has been marked with his own authority to provide us with the food which endures to everlasting life. And Christ did it. He provided that food. Christ honored the seal of God that was upon him. He was not a covenant breaker. Jesus was a covenant keeper who completely accomplished the task that God had marked out for him. He lived the life that we should have lived, perfectly obeying God's law. And he died the cursed death that we deserve to die, bearing the penalty for all of our sins upon the cross. And he will provide everlasting salvation for all those who call upon him as Lord. So when you're laboring for the food which endures to eternal life, you don't need to worry if your labors are in vain or not. If you are doing them in true faith in Christ as your risen Lord, then you will reap far more than you are sowing. So rest today in God's goodness to you. And tomorrow as you embark on another week of chores and homework and work and all the earthly employments that will take up your time, Remember that you are not only working to fill your bellies, but also to fill your souls. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this word. We thank you, Lord, that you have promised to us that you will give us what we are seeking after. Lord, your word says that blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Lord, we thank you that if we seek truly from the heart after that food which endures to everlasting life, that we will find it. God, that you are not far from any one of us. God, that when we hear the preaching of your gospel, your word is working to convert your children and to strengthen your children and to draw them to closer faith in you. God, I pray that your word is working even right now to draw people to you. Lord, if there's anyone here who does not trust you as Lord and Savior, if they have not sought after truly from their heart of hearts that everlasting food, Lord, I pray that you would Convert them now. God, and for those of us who do know you truly, I pray that you would strengthen us on our way. As we dine at your table, I pray that you would strengthen us, not just with the morsel of bread and the sip of wine, God, but with that spiritual food. Receiving again, in renewed faith and vigor, the joy and the blessing of your body and blood broken for us. Lord, I pray that that would be the case. We ask your continued blessing now, Lord. In Christ's name, amen.