I Am the Bread of Life

I AM – I AM the Bread of Life

John 6:25-70

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship. I told you my plants were confused last week, now they are really confused! We saw 96* then less than 48 hours later it was freezing, now it’s in the 80s again. As we say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour, it’ll change.”

I want to share with you how excited I am for what is going on here at First. Confirmation Class is starting soon, our Children’s Ministry is growing, our Youth Ministry is growing, all of our worship services are seeing new people become a part of the church, you are being a part of the ministry to this community in a variety of ways. It is an exciting time to be here at first. I still believe the statement we started the year with, “God has more in 2024… more for this church, this community, and this movement of God we are a part of.”

Before we get to today’s passage and into the message, let’s pause for a prayer.

<Prayer>

Sermon Slide

Today, we are in our 3rdSunday of Lent and our 3rd Sunday of the new sermon series looking at the statements where Jesus self-identifies as I AM. Today, we are looking at his statement where he calls himself “The Bread of Life.” Turn with me in your Bible’s to John 6. Some consider this John’s Communion passage. He doesn’t have a Passover Meal passage like Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where they quote the words of Jesus as he institutes the Lord’s Supper, but this is a close version to it. Jesus has just fed the thousands with a boy’s sack lunch of 5 crackers and 2 sardines. That’s really what it was, it wasn’t like he was carrying 5 big loaves of French Bread and a couple of 5 pound Catfish wrapped up in his coat. It was more like 5 crackers and a couple of sardines. So, Jesus performs this ‘sign’, this miracle of multiplication, then sends everyone away. He goes up the hill to be alone and pray, walks on the water to the other side of the lake – that’s another story all in itself – and then finds that the crowd has followed him.

They were looking to God for the wrong things, and expecting God to provide according to their wishes and will.

When he got there, he tells them, “You only look for me so I can give you another meal… you don’t need me to feed you, you need to believe in God and the One He sent.” I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point. They were looking for food for their bellies, but Jesus had so much more for them.

The people came to see Jesus perform another sign… they want to see another miraculous thing they can wonder about. They were looking for Jesus to give them another handout. In other words…

They were demanding that God prove himself to us

But, I’ve got to ask… are we any different?

How many of us think we need God to do something miraculous for us to believe?

Sometimes the miraculous thing we need to see is that wife that doesn’t leave her husband’s side as he lays in the bed on hospice.

Sometimes the signs and wonders come out as a parent who loves their children through the heartache and pain of adolescence.

Sometimes the miracle is the man who shows the love of Christ to his unbelieving spouse.

We are surrounded by miracles all the time.

I will protect the name, but I was told a story by someone here in town… They were in the nursing home visiting a loved one and the man down the hall was screaming and yelling the whole time. Not just that time, but every time she went to visit her loved one. I would have probably been frustrated with him, angry with him, I would have probably called for the nurse to go do something about this guy, but that’s not what she did. She felt called to go visit him. As she walked in, he had thrown his cover off and was lying in bed exposed, she just looked past that and looked into his face. She talked to him for a few minutes and asked if he knew Jesus. He shook his head no. She told him how much Jesus loves him, how Jesus died for him and rose again so that he could have peace, so that he could have eternal life. Then she asked if she could pray for him. As she prayed for God’s peace and comfort, as she prayed for his soul, a tear came down the man’s face. After the prayer she spoke to him for a few more minutes about God’s love and how all he has to do is say yes to God, accept Jesus as his savior and he would be saved, how there is nothing he has ever done that would make God not love him. When she walked out of the room and went back to her loved one it took a little bit to realize that he wasn’t yelling any more. He wasn’t screaming. In fact, she didn’t hear him scream and yell again.

A couple of days later he passed away peacefully. I can’t help but think that the patience, kindness, and just Godly love of this lady didn’t have an impact on his life. We might call that a coincidence… but I like to call it a miracle.

We don’t need a “sign” from God, we simply need to open our eyes to the signs and wonders, the miracles all around us.

As we continue to read in John 6, we get to verse 30 and they stop hinting, they specifically ask Jesus to give them a sign, their ancestors ate Manna in the wilderness, and so they ask, “Moses did that… what are you going to do?”

Before we get into the meat of our passage, or should I say the Bread of our passage, let me touch on why this was such a big deal for these people. It was their belief that the Messiah would recreate the miracles that occurred during the Exodus. When the people were wondering for 40 years, God provided manna in the morning, a flakey substance like bread, then in the evening quails would come and they could harvest them. God fed them, and they were looking for the same thing now.

Sermon Slide

Another thing, Bread was a big deal for them… Bread was life.

For me right now, bread represents another 5 lbs. I am trying to avoid bread, but it was a critical part of their life. I remember a story my dad told me about him staying with a friend whose family was from the Mediterranean. Think Italy, Sicily, somewhere like that. When he had dinner with them, he ate all his food including bread… lots and lots of bread. When he had cleaned his plate of the main course, he left a little bit of bread on the plate. He was full, he stopped eating; however, what resulted was a lecture on the importance of bread, how bread was life… how he couldn’t leave bread behind. For that family bread wasn’t a side dish, bread was life giving and life sustaining.

It was the same way for the people of Israel in that time. Bread was a serious thing for these people. It represented life. It reminded them of their past and looked to their future.

Turn with me to verse 32, this is where the rubber meets the road in our passage.

John 6:32-35

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Remember what I just said, “Bread represented life. It reminded them of their past and looked to their future.” Not only did Jesus say, “Ego Eime”, Yahweh, the very name that God gave Moses as his name forever… not only did Jesus claim to be God in the flesh, he said that he is life… he is the one from the past and the one of the future for them.

But Jesus isn’t finished… he goes on to say these words:

John 6:53-58

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven…

These people, the crowds that followed Jesus were looking for a miracle worker that would make their life better, but what they found was a Savior that challenged them to a better life.

Sermon Slide

Are you looking for a Jesus that can make your life better? Are you looking for a Jesus who will give you a miracle that you can point to? Or are you looking for a new life? Are you looking for the life that Jesus offers? This Lent, are you willing to really follow Jesus?

As you read on in this chapter, there were many “followers” who walked away at that moment. Jesus wasn’t going to put on another show for them, he challenged them to believe in HIM, not what he could do for them.

Then Jesus turned to his own disciples, his 12 and asks them, “Are you going to leave too?”

And Peter replied:

John 6:68-69

“Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

As you prepare for Holy Communion, as you prepare to come to this altar, ask yourself… do you follow Jesus hoping for some miracle that will make YOUR life better, or do you follow Jesus for the life HE can give you?

Are you looking for a miracle worker that would make your life better? Or, are you looking for a Savior that offers you a better life?

Are you going to leave him when he doesn’t follow your will, or are you going to follow him and seek his will?

If you do follow him… know this, Jesus is the only one to fill your deepest hunger. Jesus is life giving and life sustaining… Jesus is the bread of life.

Would you pray with me?