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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. This is the Sunday drive to church for August. August 4. Wait a minute, is that right already? August 4, 2000, the year of our Lord 2024. God be praised for his mercy and kindness to us. It's the 10th Sunday after the feast of Pentecost.
[00:00:23] We're gonna. It's a little bit of a switch. Well, it's not too much. You know, we had a couple of weeks ago the feeding of the 5000, the walking on water. And then what happens in the ministry of our Lord Jesus is that there's a discussion about the bread of life and it's recorded only for us in John. Remember that the feeding of the 5000 is one of the only at least very few miracles like the resurrection of Jesus. That is in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And in John it's a preface to this beautiful long bread of life discourse, which is what we'll hear today in the gospel lesson. So even though we're in year C, sorry, year b, and we're hearing a lot from Mark, it's supplemented with John that happens mostly in advent and lent. But here we have another supplement. In the summer we'll hear from John, chapter six. And this great bread of life discourse, it's paralleled beautifully with the gift of manna from Exodus 16. We're doing our continual reading from Ephesians, chapter four. Beautiful psalm. The end of psalm 45. Wonderful stuff. But let's begin this morning with the colic for the day.
[00:01:32] Merciful Father, you gave your son Jesus as the heavenly bread of life.
[00:01:36] Grant us faith to feast on him in your word and sacraments, that we may be nourished unto life everlasting through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
[00:01:52] Starting? Oh, well, I was going to start at Exodus 16, maybe starting in psalm 145 we have the last eleven verses of the psalms. Psalm 1021. The most famous one is verse 1615 and 16 because it's the verses that precede the meal prayer, the table prayer in the catechism. The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
[00:02:26] And that's really the kind of gist of the psalm. Psalm 145. The Lord preserves all those who love him, but the wicked, he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. So this psalm of praise that the Lord gives what he promises and he promises good things.
[00:02:54] He satisfies all our needs, both of body and soul. Remember that in this, in some ways, the readings are pushing us on this the last few weeks, that they are.
[00:03:08] They're reminding us that even though Jesus kingdom is not of this world, his kingdom is in this world. And he's put us in this world and has promised to take care of us in it. So he gives us all that we need for soul and body, for life everlasting, and life not everlasting for life in this world. And that is the kind of gist of the idea that the Lord takes care of us. But it's gonna mix itself up a little bit. I wanna think through now the Exodus 16 and John six passage. So we'll remember. Let's see how this works. In Exodus 19, the people of Israel arrive at the base of Mount Sinai. And from Exodus 19 all the way through the end of Exodus 40, to chapter 40, all the way through Leviticus, and then until numbers, like chapter eleven.
[00:04:04] I wonder when that date is exactly. Numbers.
[00:04:09] Ten. I looked it up. So numbers. So here's the stats.
[00:04:15] Remember Exodus chapter one, two, that's the birth of Moses, the calling of Moses by the burning bush. Exodus chapter three, four, he goes and he rescues the people. Ten commandments crossing the Red Sea. They get into the wilderness. And at Exodus 19, they arrive at Mount Sinai, and the children of Israel are out. Mount Sinai from Exodus 19 all the way to the end of the chapter, chapter 40. From all the way through Leviticus, all 27 chapters of Leviticus, and all the way through numbers, chapter nine. And then it's numbers, chapter ten, that they start to wander. And they wander for 40 years.
[00:04:51] That's the book of numbers. Until the end of numbers, chapter 36. They arrive at the edge of the promised land 40 years later. And then deuteronomy is this long sermon of Moses on the edge of the promised land before the people cross over.
[00:05:06] That's actually a pretty amazing thing to think about. And someone was asking me, we were talking about this the other day, you know, it wasn't. It. It doesn't take that long to get from Egypt to Jerusalem. I mean, you could probably walk there in ten days. It's like an 18 hours bus ride. I remember one time I was sitting in Jerusalem at an Internet cafe. I was 19 years old, trying to figure out what to do next. And I was about to get on a bus to ride down to Egypt to look at an ostrich race. Instead, I got on a bus and went north to Haifa, to the YMCA. Camp on the beach in the Mediterranean. But it's not that far. It just takes a couple of weeks walking to get from one to the other. So they were wandering in the wilderness not because it was 40 years to get there.
[00:05:52] They got, in fact, the people of Israel.
[00:05:55] They left in numbers. They left Mount Sinai and went right up to the edge of the promised land. And then the spies went in and remember, ten came back and said, we can't go in there. And two came back and said, we can. And because the people listened to the ten who were afraid, then they had to wander for 40 years, till everybody who believed the ten spies and was afraid died in the wilderness. And then the Lord let them in, and they didn't. It's also important that they didn't wander all the time like they weren't every day hiking around. They would go to a place and stay there for a few months or even a few years. And somewhere else. And somewhere else. And somewhere else. And the whole time the Lord was providing for them. Okay, so just kind of amazing to just get that framework in our mind. 1446 BC, the Lord rescues the people from Egypt. They leave and go to Mount Sinai. They arrive at Mount Sinai at Exodus 19. The Lord gives the ten Commandments, all the instructions for worship. They build the tabernacle, they consecrate the priesthood. Then they get moving. Exodus numbers, chapter ten, and then go to the promised land and then get sent to wander around for 40 years. And all that 40 years, the Lord is providing them bread to eat. And that bread starts in Exodus chapter 16.
[00:07:09] Maybe it's helpful when we look at Exodus and we're like, oh, chapter 16. That's between the crossing of the Red Sea and the arrival at Mount Sinai. And the people are out in the wilderness, and they're grumbling because they don't have anything to eat. And the Lord says, I'll give them something to eat. And he gives them this miracle bread, this bread that rains from heaven. They look at it and they say, manna. What is it? And so it's named manna.
[00:07:33] The Lord said, I'm going to give you every day enough for each of you. And on Friday, I'm going to give you double so that you can have enough for Friday and Saturday, so you won't have to gather it on the Sabbath. You can rest on the Sabbath and enjoy it. But if you gather more that you. Than you need, then it will turn into maggots and worms the next day.
[00:07:56] So that if you gathered a double portion on, on Thursday.
[00:08:02] When you wake up on Friday, that extra will just be rot and filth. But if you gather a double portion on Friday, it'll be great for you on Saturday. In other words, it's a miraculous bread that the Lord provides. And part of that is reflected in the Lord's prayer when Jesus says, give us this day our daily bread that we want to have enough for today and tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. And the Lord says, especially to the people in the wilderness, she says, hey, I'm going to give you enough for today.
[00:08:35] You trust me for today. Tomorrow will worry about itself. You trust me for today. So the people complain and grumble and listen to what it says. It says, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. I'm reading now verse eleven. Exodus 1611 and the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people. Israel say to them at twilight, you will eat meat and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So that the Lord will sometimes hear the grumbling of the people and it doesn't go well for them that he will sometimes hear their grumbling as a prayer.
[00:09:14] And this is good for us to remind, to remember this moaning and groaning. If we do it in faith, the Lord receives it and hears it and answers it as a prayer.
[00:09:29] Now the miracle of the prayer of the. Sorry. The miracle of the manna in the wilderness is that it's bread from heaven rather than bread from the earth. So we know the normal way that bread goes is you plant the. And then the wheat grows and then it's harvested and then it's threshed and then it's rested and then it's ground and milled and then it's mixed and then it's baked and then you have bread. Bread normally grows up from the ground. This is the opposite of that. This is bread from heaven. And in that way, bread is a picture of the incarnation, that our Lord Jesus Christ does nothing grow up from the earth like everybody else, but rather he comes down from heaven. And so Jesus is capturing that idea in his sermon in John chapter six. Now the whole of John, chapter six. And it's really nice in the Gospel of John that chapters are kind of big chunks. So the entirety of ten is the raising of Lazarus, entirety of eleven. I am a good shepherd. Almost the entirety of 15. I'm the vine near the branch as well. Not entirely, but these kind of big chunks. This is John chapter six. Is the bread of life discourse. And we're still a little bit towards the middle, maybe, I guess a little towards the end of it.
[00:10:57] When the people find Jesus having left them after feeding them the next day, they say, rabbi, where did you come from? Truly, I say to you, if you're seeking me not because you saw the signs, because you ate your fill of the loaves, do not labor for that food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you. For on him, God the Father has set a seal. And they say, what must we do to do the works of God? And Jesus says, this is the work of God, that you believe in him, who he has sent. This is this great reversal. They say, we want to do the works of God. And Jesus says, God's work is to give you faith.
[00:11:34] They were like, wait a minute. You didn't understand what you said. And he says, yes, I did.
[00:11:39] The work of God is that you believe so, that God's work is that you believe in him. That's so beautiful. And then what sign do you give us that we may see and believe in you? What works do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness. He gave them bread from heaven. 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. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
[00:12:07] And they say, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life.
[00:12:12] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[00:12:18] There are seven of these. I am the statements in the gospel of John. I am the good shepherd. I am the gate. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and the life here. I am the bread of life, and I am the vine. We had that.
[00:12:42] We had that on a Wednesday night a few weeks ago.
[00:12:45] These statements where Jesus defines himself and notice that he defines himself in connection to us. So he is the shepherd, we are the sheep.
[00:12:54] He is the vine. We are the branches.
[00:12:57] He is the way. We are the pilgrims.
[00:13:00] He is the resurrection, we are the resurrected.
[00:13:04] He is the bread.
[00:13:06] We are those who survive through the wilderness by eating this bread, by believing in Christ the one, the bread, not, that grows up from the ground, but the bread that comes down, that rains down from heaven. How glorious is that?
[00:13:23] So the text here, Jesus is pointing us to himself, and he's telling us, hey, you know, you can work to get bread, but you need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you.
[00:13:38] Our epistle lesson. I kind of top it off, you know, the epistle lesson is kind of the aperitif. Isn't that the fancy after dinner drink? I probably should only use words. I know what they mean. I think that's what that means. If it means something bad, someone better tell me. Ephesians is the dessert. Ephesians is the. It's the cheesecake. It's the cheese course. That's what it is. It's so thick. I. We're in Ephesians, chapter four, and I'm just going to read this whole thing to you, making comment on the way, because it's so fantastic. Remember that Paul, he kind of follows the outline in all of his letters. Faith, love and hope.
[00:14:14] Faith is the doctrine. Love is our life of service. Hope is endurance in the midst of suffering.
[00:14:22] And we kind of are. We're in the love section here. I therefore, Paul says, a prisoner for the Lord.
[00:14:30] This is one of the prison epistles, written probably from Rome, maybe in Caesarea, but probably when Paul was imprisoned in Rome that first time, he was there.
[00:14:42] I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
[00:15:01] Our love, by the way, our oneness, our unity in the church is a manifestation of faith and love. It does us no good to have a unity of love if we have different faith, different doctrines, different beliefs. It also does us very little good to have a unity of doctrine if we don't have a unity of love, we don't bear with one another, if we don't care for one another.
[00:15:28] There's one body, one spirit, just as you were called, and one hope that belongs to your call. One lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
[00:15:40] But grace was given to each one according to the measure of Christ's gifts. So this is going to be the contrast between the one and the each. So there is only one church, one body of Christ, one spirit, one faith, one God, one baptism. But there are distinctions in the gifts that the Lord Jesus gives. Therefore, Paul's going to quote psalm 68.
[00:16:04] When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives. He gave gifts to men in saying that this is quoting the psalm 68, which is a prophecy of the ascension, so that Jesus went into heaven and he took all of our enemies with him, so that he might, in the freedom that he's won for us, give us great gifts. And those gifts are going to be, have different distinctions in saying that. Here's his commentary, paul's commentary in saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth. Incarnation. He who descended is the one who ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. This is the omnipresence of the human nature of Christ, the genus maestodicum. And he gave, here's the gifts he gave. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith. Look at that unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, human cunning, craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, there it is, faith and love bound up to one another. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up every way into him who is the head unto Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together, and every joint which is equipped, each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love, so that you and I are all part of the one body of Christ. And we have different gifts. We're all different members or parts of that particular body with different functions. But there is only one body. Now, a couple of things to note about this text is so beautiful. Some people have noted that Ephesians and Colossians are very similar to each other. But Colossians emphasizes Christ the head, and Ephesians emphasizes the church the body. And I think that's right, because here it's emphasizing how we care for one another, bless one another, love one another, care for one another for the purpose of having a unity of doctrine. There's an old and pretty serious debate in the church about verses eleven and twelve.
[00:18:23] It says, he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers. So four unique offices. The apostles, we know, the twelve, the prophets, the Old Testament writers, the evangelists, that is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, pastors and teachers. And I can tell you, dear saints, that this verse is perhaps one of the, maybe it is the most humbling text for me to think that the Lord Jesus is pleased to list my calling on the same list as the prophets and apostles. It's quite amazing to be on that list. But for what purpose? And the debate has to do with whether the purpose of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers is two or three.
[00:19:10] To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, and the entire, what's called the church growth movement, which is a sociological movement, a theological movement in the church from, I don't know, 50 years ago, says that the purpose of the ministry is to build up, is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And the whole question revolves around who does the work of the ministry. Is it prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, or the saints who do that particular work? Well, here's my answer to that little question. I mean, I think it's obvious that the pastors and teachers are equipping the saints and doing the work of the ministry and building up the body of Christ. But the point is all of that work is geared toward the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, so that the Holy Spirit is working in the church to grant us a confession of Christ to where we all stand together and say we believe in our Lord Jesus. Well, may God grant it. All right. That's under judgment. Oh, a couple of things. So one, I'm, Lord willing, on the singles cruise today with Kerry hosting this with 150 other singles. Pray for us. Also, you'll notice that Pastor Davis is not there this morning because he's caring for the Rosky family.
[00:20:31] Marilyn and Marvin Rosky are mourning the death of their grandson James, who died as a young baby. So please pray for that family, family of James and for Pastor Davis, who's ministering to them at that service this morning, that the Lord would grant them comfort and peace. Okay. May God grant that same comfort and peace to all of us. And we'll see you soon. God's peace be with you. Sunday drive to church.