The True Bread of Life

Welcome, 3rd message through this section

Disciples come back from 2x2

Feeds the 5,000

Jesus walks on water

1. The hunger of the crowd. vv. 22-27

The next day, after the feeding, the people woke up looking for Jesus.

Knew disciples got in boat and Jesus didn’t

Start looking for him

Can’t find, so decide to go searching.

Some boats have blown over from Tiberias, so they hijack them and head over to Capernaum

John 6:25 “When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”” Notice their title for Jesus, Rabbi. Not Lord, not Messiah, not Prophet (6:14), but Rabbi.

John 6:26 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter. No sugar coating, no beating around the bush, but says “you seek me because you ate your fill of the loaves”?

2 things I want us to note here:

The people connected to Exodus and the feeding and manna. This has been and will continue to be throughout this text.

The cultural context of food.

2-3lbs of bread a day

2-3 hours of labor/day to produce enough grain to feed a family of 6/day. 5lb rock grinding together.

John 6:27 “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.””

Notice Jesus title for himself: Son of Man. The Savior was counter cultural and flipped their idea of Messiah upside down. How the Kingdom of God operates is vastly different from their plans. He MUST SUFFER.

Your focus is off. You’re concerned and worried about the wrong things.

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

The crowd was hungering for food to fill their belly, they were hungering for a messiah to kick these Romans out and set himself on David’s throne.

What is it you’re hungry for?

Release from current situation?

Freedom from a diagnosis?

Relief from family burdens?

Bank account to grow?

New job or position?

Kids to begin behaving better?

What are you hungry for today?

2. The necessity of faith. vv. 28-34

For the crowd, they then connect “Eternal life” to works they must do.

John 6:28 “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

I think about how pertinent this is for us today.

We must show our worthy or value by the products we produce and the achievements we reach. We want to know that we MATTER.

To keep my job, I must continue to hit this metrics

To make others want me around, I must do things for them.

To show how great I am, I must keep my calendar as full as possible and when people ask me how I am doing, I must talk about how “busy I am”

Luke 15, only time Jesus shows to be in a hurry, Father runs after his son! Undignified.

Our kids get this too

My parents are only proud of me when I get good grades.

My Dad only cares about how good I doing on the football field.

John 6:29 “Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.””

What?!?! How can ‘work’ be believing in Jesus?

John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.””

John 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

The crowd then goes back to Jesus claim to be the Messiah from v. 27 (Son of God and The Father has set his seal), and they ask him “What sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?

Now many of us westerners read this and think DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THAT HE JUST FED YOU ALL WITH 5 LOAVES and 2 FISH?!

You see the feeding was close to a sign they were expecting but look at verse 31 John 6:31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ””

Didn’t “come down from heaven”

Jesus once again cuts straight to he heart John 6:32–33 “Jesus then said to them, “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.””

It wasn’t Moses, or mans work. But my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

And this bread is he who comes down from heaven. Notice Jesus switches from talking about food to a person here.

What was the crowds then response John 6:34 “They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.””

Give us bread to EAT every day.

Come back to stone example and remove the labor it takes to make.

“Jesus is not simply a teacher giving bread to the hungry; he is himself the bread. He is the gift of God come down from heaven, the one through whom God’s life can become ours.” N.T. Wright

What is it you’re doing? Working FOR your salvation. Working FROM your salvation?

3. The gift of eternal life. vv. 35-40

Jesus has been pretty frank and upfront with the crowd, he see’s that they still just aren’t getting it.

John built on 7 “Signs”

John also built on 7 “I am” Statements

Here is the first.

John 6:35 “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.”

Connecting hunger and THIRST (John 4 and woman at the well)

“The gospel feeds the soul. The bread of heaven is Christ Himself, and nothing else can satisfy.” J.I. Packer

John 6:36 “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.”

Old saying “Seeing is believing”, Jesus says na, you have seen me and yet do not believe me.

How do I know you don’t believe me? You’re still seeking the wrong things. You aren’t doing living the life I teach and model.

You aren’t redeeming the broken world around you.

You aren’t living extreme generosity.

You still want to seek revenge on your own.

You don’t love the unlovable like I call you to, you only love those who love you back.

You find your value and worth in what you do.

You don’t love your spouse and give yourself up for them like I call you to.

Your priority for your kids isn’t to see them love me and glorify me, but rather for them to be the best athlete, the smartest kid, the kid with most stuff.

Just like John 4:34 and 5:30 Jesus makes a similar statement in v. 38

John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

John 6:40 “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.””

Nutrient/grinding of wheat

Isaiah 53:5 “he was crushed for our iniquities;.”

“The possession of eternal life now and the hope of resurrection “at the last day” are two things which God has joined together for those who have come to Christ in faith.” F.F. Bruce

Where do you find life?