Bread from Heaven
Notes
Transcript
When you think of bread, what do you think of? The top three things that come to mind for me are:
Nourishment
Healthy (most of the time)
Delicious (with peanut butter anyway.)
On of my favourite snacks is a piece or two of peanut butter toast. It hits the “spot” for me.
The Israelites, when they were in Egypt, had no food. They were in the wilderness. They began to question whether or not they should just go back to Egypt. After all, at least there was food there! (Clearly, they had forgotten about the slavery they endured.) God came to His people’s rescue, sending manna - bread from heaven. Everyday there would be new manna on the ground. For all the years they were in the wilderness, God fed them.
But as good as that bread was, and as good as a nice loaf of bread is now, we have bread that feeds us eternally - that in fact gives us eternal life.
It says what? Spiel. FINISHING!
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
How does this fit into the grand story of the Bible?
How does it communicate the truth of the gospel?
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever 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 whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—
not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus Christ is the bread that brings everlasting life.
We’re going to understand three very important truths today from this passage: Namely that Jesus is the bread of life, that we must receive this bread, and we must eat this bread.
So, as we think about Jesus being the bread that brings everlasting life, our first truth is that Jesus is the bread of life.
The Bread of Life (35-40)
The Bread of Life (35-40)
In John 6 35 we read:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
To understand this statement, and where Jesus is going with it, let’s jump back a bit in John to the beginning of the chapter. At the very beginning of chapter 6 we have the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. This amazing miracle in which Jesus takes 5 loaves of bread and two fish, and somehow feeds a crowd until they are full. It’s this amazing miracle that gets the people really excited.
Next comes the story of Jesus walking on water to join His disciples in the boat. Again, this shows Christ’s power over the natural earth as its Creator and Sustainer.
That leads us to this section in which we read about the crowds even the next day already looking for Jesus. So much so that when they can’t find Him, they hop into boats and go to the other side of the sea of Galilee. When they find Him, they call Him rabbi, which means teacher, and say to him “why did you come all the way over here??”
Jesus, knowing their hearts cuts to the chase. He says:
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
It is then that Jesus sets the stage for the “bread of life” idea. The crowds are a bit testy - “Show us a sign if you want us to believe in you! After all, Moses gave us bread from heaven!” Jesus goes, “No, actually my Father did. But you would do better to seek the true bread of heaven - the one who comes from heaven and gives life.” They say “We want that!”
Then, if it wasn’t clear enough, Jesus says “I am the bread of life.” Whoever believes in Jesus shall never hunger or thirst. Is that to say that somehow we will always have full bellies, never want for food, and never find ourselves in need of a glass of water again? No! To think this way is exactly how the crowds were thinking - in earthly terms. And for this reason Jesus says to them:
But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me.
Jesus is instead talking about Spiritual food and drink. In Jesus, our souls are satisfied. In Jesus, our hope is made sure. In Jesus, the desire that all of us have to reach heaven someday is realized. Jesus is the bread that produces eternal life. If we want to be right with God, if we indeed want to reach heaven and have assurance of eternal life, we must accept the true bread from Heaven: Jesus Christ.
We then receive this promise from Jesus:
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
It is the will of God the Father - which Jesus has come to accomplish - that not one of those who come to Jesus should be lost, but instead will be raised to new life again on the last day, or at the end. We have here a beautiful promise: That all those who come sincerely to Jesus he will not reject, nor somehow misplace or lose.
We could get into a big debate here about if people are predestined or if they are not. Perhaps that’s for a later time. But hear the good news here! No matter what you have done, no matter who you are or what you have been through, Jesus Christ offers to you the free gift of salvation. Precisely because of the supernatural drawing of God, all those that come to Jesus in sincerity will not be turned away. He will not reject you, even when you feel that you are too far gone. Nor will He misplace you or reject you later when you face trial or struggle or pain.
Toy story analogy
Our God is a gentleman, and He will not force you to accept Jesus, but the reality is that for everyone who does accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour they will not be turned away, nor will they be misplaced or forgotten by God sometime later.
Jesus said:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is the message of this first part of the passage: Jesus is the true bread of life. Anyone who believes in Him will receive eternal life, as we read in:
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
So this is our first lesson as we consider how Jesus Christ is the bread that brings everlasting life is this: Only through Jesus can we be saved. Only in Him is eternal life found. But to all those who believe He will not turn us away but instead we are God’s own, and we have great hope in that. But this leads us to our second lesson:
Receive the Bread (41-50)
Receive the Bread (41-50)
As we get into this next section, we see right away the people’s hearts are still not in tune with what Jesus has said. They totally miss the whole part about Jesus being the source of eternal life, but focus on on the physical:
Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
Now this next part I love, and I appreciate the NLT’s translation here:
But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said.
Then Jesus reminds them of how very important it is for them - and us - to heed what Jesus is saying:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
He demonstrates in this verse that only through the grace of God can one come to know Jesus Christ. Our hearts were dead, we were lost in sin, as we are told in:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
But God draws us, His Spirit moving and at work, that we might believe and receive new life in Jesus. Jesus reminds the Jews as well of the end times reality of faith: That on the last day - at the end - all who are His He will raise to life again. Death will not be the conqueror, but the conquered.
Then Jesus uses Scripture, specifically a quote out of Isaiah 54:13 to teach them: All who listen to God the Father will naturally come to Jesus, because He is in fact the only way to the Father. This debunks the idea that we can somehow confess belief in God, but reject Christ. If you reject Jesus Christ, you are rejecting God. The only way to the Father is through the Son. The Jews are happy to confess belief in God, but not in Jesus Christ. Therefore, how can they know the true God anymore if they deny Him? The reality is they cannot. This leads us to our second lesson:
We must be willing to receive Jesus - to believe that Jesus is Saviour and Lord. This was a hard thing for the Jews, who couldn’t wrap their heads around Jesus being the life-giving bread from heaven. Moreover, it reminds us of John 5 17-18 (Cornerstone), where Jesus identifies Himself as equal with the Father.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
By doing so, Jesus was telling them He is God! Much as He tells them in John 6 that He is the One who will save all those who believe. But if they want to be saved, they must accept Jesus as the Messiah - the bread from Heaven that brings eternal life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
John, 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John (Debate with the Jews (6:41–46))
The Jewish people had been unwilling, and they rejected the divine call at every level.
We must be willing to receive Christ. We must be willing to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. If we fail to do this, we are rejecting God and are setting ourselves on a path toward hell. So this second lesson as we consider that Jesus Christ is the bread that brings everlasting life is this: We must be willing to receive Christ. God softens our hearts and draws us to Himself. Yet we must still accept the gift. The Jews couldn’t do this. They refused to admit that Jesus - this one they knew and had grown up with - was really God the Son, sent with the express purpose to save all those that would believe. This will cost them eternal life on the last day.
Our third lesson is…
Partake in the Bread (51-58)
Partake in the Bread (51-58)
As if Jesus had not made it clear enough, we again see Jesus making the same point. These two lessons are similar, but notice the total commitment that is at stake here. Jesus says:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
This is the first time in this passage we see Him say that the bread is His flesh. This is where our “weird, wild, or wacky” part might come in. The Jews are like “how can we eat His flesh??”
Jesus continues:
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.
This would have been totally disgusting to anyone who is taking this passage literally. Who wants to do that?? For the Jews, drinking blood was forbidden. Some also see this passage as referring to the Lord’s Supper. While there could be undertones of that here, the metaphorical sense of this passage once again describes what Jesus has been getting at earlier.
The language here is not suggesting a literally physical ingestion of Christ, but of what Jesus has been talking about all along! He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the Word - Logos in Greek - the ultimate communication of truth. This is plainly understood from John 3 16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It is in fact in the giving of Jesus’ body and blood upon the cross - through His sacrifice - that we are made right again to God, that we may be saved and have eternal life. Jesus was going to give up His body and His blood would be spilled for the sins of this world. To eat Jesus’ body and drink His blood is not literal. He is metaphorically speaking about what it means to place your faith in Jesus Christ.
John: An Introduction and Commentary iv. Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse (6:25–59)
When this metaphor is unpacked, it means that Jesus is the source of true satisfaction; belief in him who gave his life for the world is the only way to satisfy human hunger and thirst for God.
This is the same sort of metaphor as is used in John 4:14 as he speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus is the Living Water! Just like He is the Bread of Life! It is only through eating His flesh and drinking His blood - a metaphor for truly placing our faith and trusting 100% in Christ alone - that we may be saved. Only in Jesus is our hunger and thirst for God satisfied.
But if Jesus really is the way, truth, and life, we cannot afford to have a half-hearted commitment to Him. We cannot simply say “Oh yes, I believe” with no look towards total commitment of our lives to Christ. So this section, as Osborne points out:
John, 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John (Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of the Son of Man (6:51–58))
(1) Primarily, it anchors the teaching of the discourse as a whole—namely, that one must consume Jesus, the Bread of Life, completely to be his true follower. Halfhearted commitment is not enough.
Have you accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour?
John, 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John (Debate with the Jews (6:41–46))
Conversion is a total process in which God captures and involves the whole person in a holistic change from the earthly to the heavenly
Jesus is our soul-satisfying bread. It is through Him and only Him that we receive soul-deep satisfaction in our new, right relationship with God and the promise of eternal life. Whether one will admit it or not, two things are true of every person:
We all have a need for God. We were created to be in relationship with Him, and we all have a soul-deep dissatisfaction that can only be solved by relationship with Him. Money, sex, power - the common stop-gaps for this - cannot fill the void.
We are all in need of the grace, mercy, and love of God. Without these things - embodied in Jesus - where would we be? On our way to hell, clearly, for as this passage shows us it is only in Jesus that we are saved, set free, and receive eternal life.
John, 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of the Son of Man (6:51–58)
Our “life” has its basis in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and we appropriate it by faith—that is, by eating the bread, by trusting in his fleshly sacrifice that atones for our sin.
This is our final lesson, if it hasn’t been clear already: We must believe - hook, line, and sinker - in Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We must believe and confess outwardly our faith in Him: that His sacrifice is enough, and that He is both Saviour and Lord. Jesus calls to us through this passage. Will you receive the bread of life; will you believe in Jesus, and give Him not just a little bit of your life, but everything, trusting in Him alone for your salvation?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus Christ is the bread that brings everlasting life.
We have seen this clearly. He presents Himself as the bread of life: Only through Him is salvation possible
So we must receive this bread: Jesus only through Jesus is eternal life possible, and it is available to all who call to Jesus.
Partake in the bread. Give Jesus your life - every last bit. No matter who you are or where you’ve been or what you’ve done, this gift of eternal life - of mercy and grace, is available to you as well. And if that is you, then allow Jesus to be Lord, not just of this part or that part of your life. Let Him be Master of it all. Follow Him for all you are worth, trust in Him alone as you look forward with hope to the last day.
At the end of this chapter, we see that many of those who came to Jesus looking for a cool sign or some more food turn away; grumbling, disappointed, and confused. They don’t get it.
Then Jesus says this to His disciples:
So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
Do you want to go away as well? That’s the question that hangs here today: Will you too turn away, or will you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and eat of the bread that gives eternal life? Will you choose to believe, to place your faith in Him, or will you be blinded and turn away?
The choice belongs to each of us. It is a choice for those who have not accepted Jesus yet. It is a choice for those who have accepted Him and believed, but are doubting. It is a choice that comes to us when we don’t understand, or when we feel confused. It is a choice that requires us - wherever we find ourselves - to give 100% to the Saviour. This is about total life commitment. So, what will we do?
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
How beautiful is this moment with Jesus and His disciples. And it is the same moment that each of us can have with Jesus, if we would only come, and accept Him as Lord and Saviour, placing our belief in Him alone for salvation. Good physical bread may give you energy, or physical nourishment for a time. But only when we abide in Jesus - choosing to commit to Him and believe do we find the hunger of our souls fulfilled. So here’s how we’re going to end today:
Salvation call
If you do know Christ as Lord and Saviour, this is your chance to thank God for the moment you had, like Peter, where you said “I have believed and come to know…” Allow God’s Spirit to rest upon you, and show you how to grow deeper in Jesus. Give Him your worry, your confusion, and your doubt, and exchange it for the living bread that nourishes us again and again.
Pray.