Bread of Life: Jesus - Baker or Messiah? Part 1

Opening

Please open your bibles to John 6

This morning, we will see another one of Jesus’ “I am” statements

The bread of life

His discourse in John 6 goes from verse 26 to 58

and will be undertaken throughout 4 sermons to expose the meaning of the text completely

We will be looking at verses 26-33

But for context, we will read until verse 40

Please rise for the reading of the word of God

Reading

John 6:26–40 LSB

26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What should we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? 31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

This concludes the reading of the word of God

Prayer

Let’s pray

Our Lord Jesus

You are the bread of eternal life

The source of life itself

Give us this bread

Let us eat of it daily, that we might come to know you more,

and depend on you more and more every day

Fill us with your word

Bless the preaching of your word

Amen

You may be seated

Introduction

Have you ever listened to something someone had to say simply because they offered you something for free to listen?

When I was a broke university student, I did this regularly

My normal diet consisted of Tim Hortons breakfast wraps and coffee

rarely was I able to eat anything else

However, on university campuses,

It’s really common for different student groups to offer free food if you attend their events

All sorts of religious groups, activist groups, environmental groups, etc. do this

And in order to attract students,

they would usually offer free pizza

And me, being who I am, regularly attended these events purely for the free food

There were even Facebook groups where people would announce where the day’s free food could be found

I even factored this into my budget

This, however, also meant that I had to listen to whatever these people wanted to talk about

That was the exchange

Whether I cared at all about what they were saying, or not

Give me Free food, and I will listen

With my budget, I really didn’t have a choice

And the people in our text this morning did exactly the same thing

At the beginning of John 6, Jesus performs the famous feeding of the 5000.

He feeds a crowd of followers

But, during the night, he leaves and goes with his disciples to the other side of the lake

When the people realize this, they go searching for him

And eventually they find him

And Jesus’s first words to them are ones of rebuke

He calls them out for searching for another free meal,

rather than come to hear his message

For them, he was just some form of free food dispenser

He was Jesus, the miraculous baker

Who gave away his product for free

Not Jesus the Messiah

All they could see was bread in the signs that He did

They didn’t see what the sign was pointing to

The sign that was pointing to Him,

who He is, not what He does

He is more than a Baker,

He is the bread they need

The bread of life

And we must come to him for that

We must come to him for who he truly is

The Bread of Heaven, who gives life to the world

When you think of Jesus

Do you think of him as a miracle worker?

A healer?

A baker?

Or do you think of him as God

Why are you here this morning?

Have you come for anything other than the person of Jesus?

If you have come for anything other than the bread of life,

Jesus’s words of rebuke are for you

Outline

The outline for this morning will walk through verses 26-33

as Jesus rebukes and corrects the crowd’s understanding

of whom He truly is

Misguided motives (v.26)

Where he addresses our motives,

Whether good or bad,

For following Him

and the distinction between true and false disciples

The Gracious Invitation (v.27-29)

How we are to come to him,

and the work required before we are able to

In other words,

The invitation and method of coming to Jesus

The Bread of Heaven Revealed (v.30-33)

What Jesus truly offers us

The truth of his message

Transition

These 3 points outline this passage,

and address our:

motives,

and methods,

of coming to Jesus,

and the message that he has for us.

His reason for addressing the crowd in this way is ultimately to distinguish who is there for their next meal,

and who is there for an eternal meal

His true disciples will come to him for who he truly is

and he is the bread of life, who has come down from heaven

and gives life to the world

Misguided motives (v.26)

Starting with his first words to the crowd in verse 26,

he addresses the motives of the crowd after having crossed the Sea of Galilee

There was even a storm during the night,

so their crossing probably wasn’t easy

which indicates that they were very motivated to see him again

When Jesus walked the earth, He was a fairly well-known figure

At this point, about halfway through his ministry,

Everywhere He goes, people know him

Many come to him for varying reasons

Some for good reasons, others not

Some see him only as a miracle worker,

others see him as a wise man

and still others see him as the son of God

How we see him, and the reason we come to him, is pivotally important

Because with a false or incorrect motivation,

We will miss who He truly is

Those who come with false or misinformed motives are not his true disciples

At the end of this discourse, many leave him

many find his teachings too hard

He then asks his disciples why they stayed

Here is Peter’s response

John 6:68 LSB

68 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

He stayed because he understood who He was

The words of eternal life cannot be found anywhere else

False disciples

False disciples are those who only see the physical good that He can do for them

Sometimes, a version of Jesus is preached that he can fix all your problems

Which in some sense is true,

If we’re talking about the right problems

but that can cause misconceptions about what Jesus is really offering

Though he fed a crowd, he is not offering food

Though he heals people, he is not a healer

False disciples are those who fail to make the distinction between

what Jesus does,

and who He is

The text lays out 3 marks of false disciples

Food that perishes

The beginning of verse 27 tells us the first mark

he tells the people not to work for perishable things

The people who had crossed the Sea of Galilee however

were working only for perishable food

The bread that Jesus gave them the day before was just ordinary bread

that goes stale after a day or two

and rotten within a week

But this is what these false disciples had on their minds

Bread in the signs

When they saw the feeding of the 5000 just the day before,

They only saw bread in the sign.

They did not see the sign in the bread

They did not see the God behind the sign

The bellies were their God

They were only looking for physical satisfaction

They were looking for their next meal

Which is the most basic human desire

Earthly kingship

The second mark of a false disciple is seeing Jesus as a political power

This was the original reason that Jesus left during the night, as we see in verse 15

John 6:15 LSB

15 So Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

They saw in him a new king

A new leader

One that would lead the rebellion against the Romans, who oppressed them

One that would restore their independence as a nation

Their oppression by the Romans was all they cared about

Immediate relief

The third mark is relief from their lives of work

He fed them for an afternoon

That meant they needed to work an afternoon less,

Maybe they thought that if they followed him around

He would give them daily free food

And they wouldn’t need to work for food anymore

I wonder if some of them thought they could get their hands on one of the 12 baskets left over and sell it for a profit

Maybe they wanted to start a business with Jesus and the apostles,

and get rich off his miracle powers of bread making

This is all they saw in him

was a form of rest from their other works

and profit

Wrap up

All of these types of people come to Jesus with the wrong motive

They are not truly his disciples

They are correctly described as false disciples

If we see Jesus only as a bread maker,

only as a political leader,

or only as a means to make money

We have missed who He said He was

Application

In Acts 8, when Simon the Sorcerer heard of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit

all he saw were dollar signs

He even tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit to around to resell it

Here is what Peter thought of that idea

Acts 8:20–23 LSB

20 “May your silver perish with you, because you supposed you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray earnestly to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.”

History is full of people trying to do the same

they come to Jesus purely for their own personal gain

Is that you?

Why are you here this morning?

Are you here to make yourself look like a good christian?

Are you here so people will look up to you?

Are you here hoping to get a drop of the Holy Spirit?

Or are you here for the true Jesus?

For whom he truly is?

The bread of life that has come down from heaven

Are you here for his glory?

or your own?

True Disciples

True disciples will come, not for physical things,

but the spiritual things that He offers

Each of the 3 marks of false disciples has a corresponding mark of a true disciple

Food that endures

The first is that

they will come for food that endures

Food that is incorruptible and nourishes the spirit

While speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well

He said

John 4:13–14 LSB

13 “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst—ever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

In our sin, we hunger and thirst for spiritual relief

relief from sin

While the Samaritan woman would need to return eventually to the well for physical water

Should we be satisfied in her soul with the water given to her by Jesus

Though she initially didn’t understand,

She saw the spiritual aspect to his words

and became a true disciple

Heavenly kingship

The second mark of a true disciple is:

they are looking for the spiritual kingdom of God

Which is not physical

Jesus said in

Luke 17:20–21 LSB

20 The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘There!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

The kingdom of God is at hand

It is Christ ruling in heaven from the right hand of the Father

This is the true political power that true disciples pursue

In the Lord’s prayer, his disciples are called to pray for this

Matthew 6:10 LSB

10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

True disciples are looking for the divine and eternal rule of Christ

Christ will claim his physical throne when He is ready

We cannot place him upon that throne

Enduring relief

The third mark of the true disciple is :

looking for enduring relief, not from work, but from sin

There are temporary ways of forgetting our sin

or finding some form of temporary relief

But all fade away after a while

But the relief and liberation that Jesus alone offers is permanent

John 8:36 LSB

36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Free from the bondage of sin

We will no longer be chained to the desires of the flesh

But liberated to be joyful servants of God

Wrap up/Application

So, I ask you once again

Which are you?

Are you willing to cross the sea for some free food

or are you willing to cross the sea

for freedom from your sins?

Are you working only for bread that will become stale tomorrow?

or for bread that will endure for eternal life?

Do you pray daily for your spiritual bread as we are commanded to pray for in the Lord’s prayer?

Its like two friends who followed a hockey team around the country to watch every game

The first man did so out of pure love for the sport

He loved the team and all its players

he loved to see them play, whether they won or lost

While the second man followed the team around,

because he was having an affair with one of the team’s staff members

And had no interest in the team itself

Which one are you?

Do you follow Jesus out of love for his person and message?

Or do you follow him around for personal gain and sinful desire?

Transition

Our motivations determine everything we do

Ask yourself the reason you follow Jesus

Next, Jesus addresses the method that people are to come to Him

If we come with the right motives,

we must also have the right method

and the right means

The Gracious Invitation (v.27-29)

Which leads me to my second point

the gracious invitation of Christ

We must come to Christ for who he truly is, in the way that he has prescribed

That way is by faith in Him

as he has stated numerous other times,

and explicitly states here in verse 29

The question in verse 28 was not the first time this question was asked

The rich young ruler asked the same question

Mark 10:17 LSB

17 a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

This question, as well as how the question is formulated in verse 28 begs another question

To come to Jesus, must we do something?

What must I do?

or must He do something instead?

Verse 27 says that the food which endures is something that

The Son of man will give it to them

It says

Not to work for perishable things,

then it says to work for imperishable things

So the question in verse 28 might have been a reasonable question,

if not for the ending of verse 27

where Jesus adds that the imperishable food they need to work for,

will be given to them

They misunderstand him and ask the question anyways

How we come to Jesus

The crowd is still focusing on the physical.

They want to do something physical to get something spiritual

The physical way to come to God would be to earn it

with a form of wage

or a reward for their work

Can you buy the bread Jesus is offering?

Most bread you can buy

Can you also buy the bread that comes down from heaven?

Verse 27 says the Son of Man will give you what you need

And verse 29 says that what we need is faith

Faith that is given to you from God himself

In other words,

We believe because it has been given to us by God

Though this may sound a little weird

But Jesus says the exact same thing in 2 other places in this same discourse

John 6:44 LSB

44 “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 says that the Father must work first to bring us to him

He draws us to him like you draw water from a well

And again

John 6:64–65 LSB

64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

Faith is something supernatural,

it must be granted to us

It must be decreed

We, being dead in our sins, cannot come to him on our own

We cannot produce faith ourselves

because our sin blinds us to him

We can see the miracles of Jesus and still not believe in Him

Because God must give us the faith necessary,

and this is the work of God in our lives

It is God who does the work, not us

Though we do the believing

We are to believe in the one whom he sent

and eat the imperishable spiritual bread that he gives us,

by faith

Jesus is the authorized giver

The bread that has the seal of approval of the Father as verse 27 indicates

it was sealed at His baptism by John the Baptist

When he came up out of the water,

there was a voice from heaven saying

Matthew 3:17 LSB

17 “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

In whom my blessing is upon

The seal of communion

Christ is the bread of life

who comes down from heaven

bringing life to the world

Believe in the one sent by God (v.29)

Verse 29 serves as a wonderful summary of the Christian faith

A simple statement of the object and method of our belief

We are simply to believe in the one sent by God

Jesus, the Christ,

the son of the living God

Forsaking all our works

forsaking all other means of striving after God

But to come to him as his true disciples

and believe in Him

to put our confidence in Him

To come to him and eat his bread

How do you know if it has been granted to you?

By simply coming to Him

He is freely offered to all

John 6:37 LSB

37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.

You will not be turned away if you come to Christ

and that is a promise

Application

Eat of this bread

Not only for your salvation,

But as your daily soul-sustaining food

Through reading his word, and partaking of the Lord’s table

It our Western world, most of us don’t lack food to eat

when you’re hungry, you eat

But do you do the same with your soul?

When your soul hungers for the word of God

do you feed it?

Maybe your soul is so hungry that you don’t even feel it screaming anymore

Hunger pains eventually go away

The art of fasting can shake us away to the hungers of our soul

The main purpose of it is to remind us that we not only need physical bread, but also spiritual bread

It will remind you of your frailty and dependence upon God

It is said that a healthy person can do approximately 40 days without food

How long do you think your soul can go without food?

If you have never fasted, I would recommend it at some point

to forsake the feeding of your physical body

and only feed your spiritual body for a short period of time

Every time you feel hungry,

go pray

Every time you think about food,

read your bible

You may find that after fasting,

both your spiritual and physical body are strengthened if done correctly

It is a tool we can use to awaken our need for spiritual food

and remind us of our dependence upon Christ

for his spiritual food

Transition

Do you depend on him daily?

Do you find your satisfaction in Christ for your spiritual needs?

We cannot view Jesus as simply a baker

who makes good bread that may sustain our bodies for a day

We must come to him as the messiah,

who can sustain our souls for eternity

Because he is the bread of life,

The Bread of Heaven Revealed (v.30-33)

Which leads us to my third point

the bread of heaven revealed

We are going to look closer at the actual bread that He gives us

Objection of the people (v.30-31)

At this point, the crowd is starting to put things together,

but, in verse 30, they object to his message

and need proof before they will hear any more of what He has to say

Asking for proof (v.30)

They ask him what proof he can provide such that they can believe him

Believe his words, not believe in him

Verse 29 says to believe in Him

Verse 30 says, depending on your translation,

says to believe him

to believe the truthfulness of his words

The crowd isn’t ready to believe in Jesus yet,

even though that’s the essence of his message

Miracles don’t cause faith

Why are they not ready?

They have seen his miracles

What’s the problem

The problem is that miracles don’t always cause faith

As much as our Pentecostal friends would like to believe

Jesus, while explaining the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, says,

Luke 16:31 LSB

31 ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

If a person refuses the word of God,

then neither will they be persuaded by miracles and signs

The unbelieving mind will find any number of excuses to rationalize whatever miracle is put in front of them

Sin will always find a way to blind the mind

often by distracting them with their physical needs

Like hunger

Remember, the same crowd asking for proof is the same crowd

who just the day before saw Jesus take 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish

and feed 5000 men

not including all the women and children that were likely present

But that wasn’t enough for them

They want him to do it again

Jesus the magician needs to be able to repeat his tricks for them to believe his words

Miracle inferior than Moses’ (v.31)

In verse 31, the form of their objection is a comparison between Jesus and Moses

Jesus made bread appear,

so did Moses,

but Moses made more bread

They’re raising the bar for Jesus

They put him to the challenge

to make more bread for them

and make more than Moses did

Moses was able to feed the people daily for 40 years

Exodus 16:13–15 LSB

13 So it happened at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 Then the layer of dew evaporated, and behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. 15 And the sons of Israel saw it and said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat.

If Jesus is truly the Messiah,

they reason that He should be able to do more than Moses, right?

Correction (v.32)

At this point, Jesus proceeds to rebuke the crowd again,

and correct their understanding of that story

He says in verse 32

John 6:32 LSB

32 Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

He corrects their interpretation of the story

Moses was merely the vessel for God to do the miracle

Moses did nothing of himself,

It was all God

It always has been God

It is by the strength and power of God that any other miracle performed has been done

Anyone who does a true miracle is from God

No matter the size of the miracle

Whether bread for 5000 people or bread for 40 years,

Both authenticate that the messenger is from God

and that is Jesus’s point here

Manna is a typology of Jesus

But there is more

At the end of verse 32, Jesus uses a present-tense verb, not a past tense verb

indicating that the Father is presently giving bread to his people,

as He did in the past

Verse 33 lays out the characteristics of the bread that the Father gives, present tense, to his people

The bread of the past was the Manna,

Temporary, and restricted to Israel

but the bread of the present gives life to the world

which is Christ

Manna: Temporary, perishable, national

The Manna prefigures Christ

it’s a type of Christ, a shadow

The Manna sustained the people in the desert for 40 years

But it was temporary

They needed to collect it every morning

They could not store it because it would spoil every night

And it was only available to the people of Israel

The Lord God took care of his people in the wilderness

It built dependence upon him

But it was only a shadow of the true bread to come

A bread they wouldn’t need to collect every day

Christ: Eternal, imperishable, global (the world)

The true bread which also comes down from heaven

but gives life to the whole world

The true substance of the image of the Manna

The imperishable bread

from the shadow to the real bread

The eternal bread, that if eaten, fills us for more than a day

And is available for the whole world

Revelation (v.33)

Too many are stuck eating the image,

and not the substance of Christ

False disciples prefer the physical bread that he offers

and have no interest in the true and living bread that comes down from heaven

For we need this true bread

without which, we will die of spiritual hunger

Necessary food for eternal life

He is the necessary food we need for eternal life

Because we are dead in our sins and transgressions against God

We are blinded by sin

We can see his miracles,

and yet not believe them

We are so focused on our own needs, and desires,

that we would only see Jesus as nothing more than a baker

But the true bread, the true substance, has appeared

Freeing us from our sins

giving us eternal life

The True Bread is a person

This bread is a person

it is Jesus, the Christ

The promised messiah of God

King of Kings

Lord of Lords

Maker of heaven and earth

He alone is able to satisfy our needs

He alone is able to fulfill our hunger

and our thirst

To believe is to feed on him

To eat of the bread of the Son of man is to believe in him

Not to believe His words,

But to believe in Him

To forsake all other sources of food,

and partake of the eternal life that he alone offers

John 6:35 LSB

35 “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

He is enough for you

He can satisfy your needs

You will no longer hunger

You will no longer thirst

If you come and eat

Christ is enough for you

Because he has come down from heaven

Conclusion

He is the true bread of God

And we must come to him for who he truly is

He is not a baker, though he made bread

He is not a healer, though he heals people

He is the Messiah, the chosen of God

His true disciples look beyond his miracles to the thing they’re pointing at

His true disciples will understand the spiritual terms that he is using

His true disciples will look for enduring relief from their sins in Him

His true disciples will come to Him, not by their works

to buy his bread

But by taking the gift of faith that the Father has given them

Feast upon Christ

Matthew 11:28–29 LSB

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Prayer

Let’s pray

Lord Jesus

Give us this day our daily bread

Draw us closer to you every day

so that we might eat the bread of life

Make us dependent upon your person and word

Fill us with the joy of eternal life

Help us come to you for who you truly are

The living bread of life

Amen