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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 6-6] Work for the Food That Does Not Perish (John 6:26-39)
(John 6:26-39)
“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.’ Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’ Therefore they said to Him, ‘What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give 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.’ Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, give us this bread always.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.’”
The Lord said in today’s Scripture passage, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life.” Here, God tells us dos and don’ts in our spiritual life. He tells us to labor for the food that endures for everlasting life, not for the food that perishes.
We can see in today’s Scripture passage the account of Jesus feeding many people by performing the miracle of five loaves and two fish. Among the people who have tasted the bread of flesh, some followed and sought Jesus all the way across the Sea of Tiberias. We can see while reading the Scriptures that there were many different kinds of people among the people who followed Jesus at the time. There were some people who followed Jesus just to receive bread to eat and there were some other people who followed Him in order to be healed from their sickness; but still others followed Jesus to receive the remission of sin.
The Lord Told Us to Work for the Food That Does Not Perish
Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27). As you probably know, there was a movie titled “For Whom the Bells Toll” that was made out of the same-titled novel. This movie shows the people’s anguish over questions like “For whom do we wage war? For whom do we die and kill one another? Why is the war necessary? Is it for the nation? Is it for humanity? Or, is it for the rulers?” Like the theme of this movie, we humans are concerned over what we should live for in this world and what we should do and for what purpose.
It doesn’t make sense for us who live within God’s Church to not think about the purpose of our life when even the life in the world is seeking its purpose like this. We the righteous who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must think before the presence of God about what should we truly do. We must make up our mind about what we must live for in our hearts as we live in this world. The Lord told us to work for the food that does not perish, and not for the food that perishes. We must understand what truly is the food that does not perish and we must do God’s work based on this lesson.
There are two kinds of work before us: The work that perishes and the work that does not perish. If we narrow it down a little more, we can divide them into the worldly work and God’s work, and if we can narrow them down just a little more, we can divide them into work for one’s own self and the work of unselfish purpose for the salvation of people from destruction. Anyone who lives in this world goes back and forth between these two kinds of works or devotes himself to one of them in his life.
Then what kind of work should the righteous who believe in the righteousness of God do before the presence of God? What work is truly right? Whatever we do, we must first set our will properly as we live in this life. We must consider deeply whether we want to live our whole lives doing God’s work or seek after the wealth and fame in this world, or whether we want to study to become people who are needed in this world and live for the world peace or do the work of saving each soul that cannot help but receive judgment because of their sins.
People who haven’t received the remission of sins because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit live in this world doing much work of flesh. I also used to live in this world doing much fleshly work and thinking. Before I came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I had agonized to find out what purpose I was living for in this world. But, after being born again, the faith of believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit helped me find the answer to that question.
We are now devoted to the world missions and the mission to the physically disabled. We have made a group in the college campuses to help the physically disabled and volunteered for such work and shared the gospel of the water and the Spirit with them through the worship service to God we had with them. I have seen our ministry workers actually helping the physically disabled children and teaching the sign language to people who had hearing disabilities. Such work is God’s work. The gospel of the water and the Spirit will also begin to spread among them if just a few of these disabled kids believe the true gospel we are sharing and receive the cleansing of sin. There will now be children who shall confess the true faith with their mouths, “Jesus took all the sins of the world at once to the Cross by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. Therefore, I have no sin in me.” I think that is really God’s work and the food that does not perish.
We are also making books about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We need the efforts of so many servants of God for one book to be published. Gospel books that are printed in this manner are also distributed to people through the book exhibitions in our country. The books are also delivered through the mail to people who ask for more books. I am very happy as I do such work and think about the work that will share the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the whole world. This truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit contained in our books will definitely change them although we have not been able to go to so many of them and share the gospel with them personally. It’s because the book shares the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we wanted to share with them. I think all this is possible because they are the work of God. Making the books to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit is doing the work for the food that does not perish as God has said.
You may know that many of the books we have made are sent overseas. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is spreading even more through the readers of our books. Bringing our efforts together in publishing books, preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit overseas personally, and establishing God’s Church there—all these are truly God’s work and they are at the same time worthwhile works of sharing the food that does not perish. We believe that the work to help people receive salvation from sin and attain eternal life through our books is the very work of God.
There are truly many kinds of God’s work. Holding the revival meetings and establishing the Church, offering up material goods from the compensation we earned with hard work, offering up the intercessory prayers, and volunteering our efforts—they are all God’s works and the works for the food that does not perish. We who have become righteous by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must do such works of God continuously and ceaselessly.
Then what is the food that perishes the Lord is talking about? All the works that are not for the salvation of the souls from sin and all the works that are not done for sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the souls that are dying due to their sins are the work of the flesh that will perish. All such works done only for the flesh will be spoiled and perished, and are in vain. That is really the case. We must understand that the work of sharing the gospel, what we do now before God is a precious work and the work that is pleasing to God even though we are truly lacking.
Of course it is true that we are tired and physically exhausted at times. We faced a difficult situation just a while ago as we were printing the cover art of our first English book. The minister who was in charge of that work fell into a big trial as his proposals had been rejected several times. He thought the work he was doing was being disrespected. But we have never disrespected anyone. Regardless of who it was, we always entrusted the work with sincere respect in our hearts and carried out God’s work together with them. I asked many ministers and listened to their opinions with much respect as we did this work because it was such an important work. But I believe God works out all the righteousness even though there are some misgivings in carrying out the work.
As such, the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is the food that does not perish to all the people really requires a lot of sacrifice and physical suffering. We cannot do the valuable work that does not perish if not for the faith of believing in the righteousness of God. You must understand the fact that even we, the men of faith, cannot live spiritually if we do not do the work for the food that does not perish. We must do the work of sharing the food that does not perish until the last day. Do you understand this? Even if you had shortcomings and did only a little bit of work of serving the Lord; even if you just came and attended the meeting just with your body like this; even if you could not offer up much of material things because you did not have much material things; even if you could not do anything special because you did not have any gift or talent, God’s work will definitely be fulfilled if you worship together and join hearts together and pray in unity with the Church before the presence of God for His work, and actually carry out the work in cooperation with each other. Believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given to us, joining our strength together to share this gospel is to do God’s work, and it is the work of sharing the food that does not perish.
Should I share a story about a sister who attends our Church? They say that there isn’t a church that she hasn’t been to in order to heal her daughter who was demon possessed. When one is demon possessed, his heart is broken and his personal character is destroyed. It really requires a lot of time and the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit for the person to recover completely because the personal character that should really be respected has been disregarded and trampled down by the demon’s attack. This sister sought after and saw so many doctors that it is not an overstatement to say that she lived only to heal her daughter. Until then, this sister who had not received salvation from sin because she did not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit yet was more interested in her daughter becoming whole than for her own salvation. This is the heart of all parents. But now she realized that it is more urgent for her to receive salvation from sin rather than her daughter’s healing. She said the 10 years that she sacrificed for her daughter was too long and that she wanted to live a more worthwhile life serving the precious gospel.
The work of sharing the books, which is the food that does not perish, changed this woman. Look at the beautiful change that arose in her heart. What precious and beautiful change is that? How worthwhile is the work that she is doing? I believe that her daughter who is demon possessed will be healed through the faith of this sister who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The demon revisits repeatedly and accuses the sins of the heart when a person’s heart has been gravely hurt and confused because of his or her sin, but there isn’t any way to resolve the sin. The character of the soul that is more precious than the whole world is destroyed and becomes dead due to sin. But the demon cannot attack the people who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The work of sharing the gospel that we do is also the work of saving the souls that are dying because of the demon. The work of saving their souls is the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith.
The heart and the faith of you and I should be like that. We must take care of each soul and lead them into the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that everyone can receive salvation from sin. We must dedicate ourselves to the great work that brings all people in the world to receive salvation from sin. That makes their characters changed and worship God, and that makes them whole as God’s workers. This work of God is really the work that does not perish. It is also the worthwhile work to which we should devote our whole lives. I believe that we who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must continue to carry out this work in the future as well. Of course it will be difficult living in this world working and suffering to take care of food and other necessities and problems, but that is not our ultimate objective, right? The work we must have our hearts set on and carry out is sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is the food that does not perish.
We Must Live for the Food That Does Not Perish
We should feel true worthiness doing the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Scriptures say,
“Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
We are people who have already received salvation from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit and attained the eternal blessing of God. Then, with what work should we be rejoicing in? It is the work of saving each soul from the sin one by one! We should be rejoicing in the work that does not perish as the Lord said. That’s right!
We who yearned to do missions for the physically handicapped are actually carrying out this mission. There is one of our branch Churches that does missions to the handicapped very professionally, and the brothers and sisters really do God’s work admirably even though their bodies are handicapped. Their hearts are set perfectly on God by faith and they truly cherish God’s Church. But they had no opportunity to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit through the volunteers from the worldly churches. Many people visit them and come to do volunteer work, but they just share the food for the flesh or bring them shoes and wash their face once or wash the dirty laundry and that’s all for them. Of course their acts are not wrong, but they are all doing work for the food that perishes. They are just going there and serving the things that shall perish. Therefore, we wanted to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit for the physically handicapped.
We now must share the real food that does not perish which can heal their spiritual sickness. Therefore we need to visit them with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When Jesus was in this world, He met the sick, the poor, the alienated, and the oppressed, and delivered them from their sufferings. But the Lord cleansed their sins too as He helped them with their physical needs. I think God’s Church today is the organization that must do such work. That’s why we prayed for such a mission and now we actually share the gospel of the water and the Spirit with the physically handicapped people who are spiritually alienated. Jesus would have gone to such people and told them about the gospel of the water and the Spirit if He ministered in this age and time, and He would have used His power to heal their body and soul.
Really, we who live in this time and age must do the upright work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must set our objective correctly and stand before the presence of God. We must live doing the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit for the rest of our lives. We must experience sufferings as well as true joy while doing such upright and worthwhile works. Our Lord said that those who seek to live shall die, and those who seek to die shall live. The Lord will surely make you and me glorious if we do the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the food that does not perish, while we live in this world. I want you to believe this.
“This Is the Food Which the Son of Man Will Give You, Because God the Father Has Set His Seal on Him” (John 6:27)
What is the true food for us? What is really upright thing in this world? That’s right. That is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord who came to this world in the flesh of man took all our sins upon Him at once by receiving the baptism on His body, received all the penalty for our sins by being nailed to the Cross in our place, and became the true Savior for us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by being resurrected from death. This Jesus is our Truth, and the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has saved us is our true food. It is saying that our Lord who came as the Son of Man gave us the food that truly does not perish by giving us Himself through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The food we eat is merely the food for the flesh. It is like the oil or the gas in relation to the automobile. But God’s Word is the spiritual food for human beings, that is, the spiritual beings. Put differently, the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the food for the souls. Jesus, who received the baptism on His body and shed blood on the Cross, became the true food of salvation for us by giving up His body for us. The Lord became the true food for those who were agonizing over the broken righteousness of their own and who suffer from spiritual hunger in this world.
Who is this? He is our Lord. The Lord said, “I have received the baptism from John the Baptist for you. Then I carried the sins of the world at once and took the penalty for all those sins on the Cross to save you from sin. Therefore, I saved you from sin and judgment and became your Shepherd. I proclaim that you do not have sin now. You also will not have sin forever. Therefore, believe it as such.”
The Bible says, “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It also says, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). I reiterate the fact that the Lord gave us the true food for our souls by receiving the baptism on His body and shedding blood on the Cross. We must believe that the true food for the soul before the presence of God the Father is Jesus Christ.
Our Lord is the food for us that does not perish forever. The Lord has given us the eternal life. When we are sick in bed or working, when we are in agony or when we have made a mistake and committed sin, when we have fallen for the temptation of the world or when Satan the Devil has tempted us and made us stumble, He is the Lord that always heals our souls through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord gives us perfection when we are lacking, becomes spiritual bread when we are spiritually hungry, gives us eternal life when we are destroyed, personally receives the judgment when we are on the verge of judgment so that we may not face judgment, clothes us with prestige when we are lowly, and personally gives us all things necessary to us.
Therefore, we can never die of hunger spiritually and physically if we receive the remission of sins and serve the righteousness of the Lord by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s because every time our righteousness is broken and our shortcoming is revealed, our Lord says, “I have received all your sins by being baptized at once through My righteousness and took the judgment on the Cross for the sins and blotted them out. I have taken all your sins upon Myself. Are you hungry? Do you still have your own righteousness? Or, the righteousness of your own has bottomed out now? I have become your Savior. Eat Me. I am your Savior. I am the bread of life for you. I have now given My body to you. I have given My life to you. I am the bread of life for you.”
We have now become people who have received such blessings. We are never hungry and are happy because of the Lord. There is no problem that cannot be resolved if we try to resolve any problem in the Lord and think of Him. The Lord is our true Shepherd, our bread of true life, and the One who gives us the eternal life. Do you also believe in this? Do your really believe this?
I will ask once again to those of you who said that you do believe in the righteousness of the Lord. Who is the true food for all the people in the world? It’s Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who saved you and me from all the sins always resolves all our problems. Jesus is the creator of the universe. The Scriptures say, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) and “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” God in this Word is Jesus Christ who came to this world to save you and me from the sins and the judgment. That Jesus Christ created this universe. The Almighty God gave us Heaven as well. The Scriptures say, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Jesus, who rules the universe and everything in it, in this manner, resolved the problem of sin in our hearts. Jesus came to us when we were in the midst of all our chaos, emptiness, and in the depth of darkness. He became the Light when we were not able to set the course of our life, when we didn’t know what to live for, when we did not know the Truth, and when we had to be destroyed because of our wrongdoings. Jesus became the true life for us.
The Lord is our everything. The Lord is everything for you and me. We need the Lord for more than just resolving the problem of sin. Jesus Christ is the Lord that we need for everything in matters of our flesh and in our life. The Lord is everything for us. Do you believe this? We must not live as we please even though we are people who have been born again. It is wrong for you to think, “I have to live like this, and it has nothing to do with the Lord.” You need the Lord in your occupation, too. You need the Lord in your concerns. You need the Lord in your situation, your path, and your happiness. You need the Lord in everything.
The Lord gets involved and works together with you in matters when you need the Lord. The Lord is disappointed and He just watches when you say that you don’t need Him. The Lord surely says to you, “Go ahead and do it alone. I will never help you even if you are destroyed because you did not invite Me and you ignored Me. I ignore the one who ignores Me, and I respect the one who respects Me.” Therefore, you must invite the Lord in your life and also seek the Lord for help. We should ask the Lord, “Help me in this matter, God,” whenever we have worries. The Lord is our everything. The Lord is our food indeed.
We must now hear the Word of Truth with the ears of our hearts and believe in it, and not just hear it with our physical ears. It means that we must truly believe with our hearts the moment we hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our ears. It would be useless if we heard it with one ear and let it slip out through the other ear. Faith is believing and following with heart. I want you to know that the true food and the true work is believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit our Lord has given with our hearts and doing the Lord’s work.
We have done much work for God until now. We are the merchants selling the gospel. We must continue this work in the future as well. I am saying that we must do the work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit until we die. Let’s really believe that the work of sharing the gospel throughout the world is right and join together to do this work. Let’s always believe in and follow the Lord who is the bread of life. We must always eat the bread of life the Lord gives whenever we are hungry and receive fullness by eating that bread and live in this world brightly and blessedly with the righteousness of God. I want you to be happy with the things of the Lord and do not seek anything else. I want you to seek the Lord only and receive the happiness in God’s Church and do the right thing. I admonish you that you do not seek to find the bread of this world and also do not seek the wealth and the happiness of this world. I don’t want you to spend the life the Lord has given to you in vain. I want all of you to live a truly upright life in the Lord.
There really are so many things that we who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must do in this world. We will establish God’s Churches in Jeonju and Kwangju. We will send the servants of God to preach the Word and witness in full-scale to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit with the souls of those regions. We will serve each soul as we devote ourselves to the Lord’s work, and we will open up the frustrated hearts by sharing the spiritual food God has given them and help them receive the blessing of the remission of sins. We will feed them the food that does not perish and help them follow the path of faith.
When we visit a certain region, we find that people of that region generally do not even smile, and have a depressed and gloomy atmosphere overall. So many of them have chips on their shoulders though they don’t have much to brag about. People begin to laugh in those places when the gospel of the water and the Spirit is introduced. I believe that there will also be spiritual transformation in such places some day when we hold book exhibitions and meetings in those places and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
There are many churches in this world that do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we go up to a higher building in any city, we can see at least 5 or 6 church buildings near by. But my heart is sad and frustrated at the fact that there are few churches that preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though there are so many churches that invite the souls with the cross hung high.
No, we who have been born again will help them resolve all their problems through the Lord and attain the true food by sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world. I have seen many cases where the regions that were introduced to the gospel of the water and the Spirit actually become more developed and receive much blessing. That is so true. Any family that preaches the gospel and serves the gospel wholly will have peace in the family, and there will surely be peace in the region, the nation, and the world. It is truly the amazing work of God.
Let us now share the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world and have all the people in the world enjoy the blessing and live their life seeking the Truth. Let us carry out this work of God.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission