"I AM" The Bread of Life

Exodus 3:14 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

What does it mean when you ask your God, Who are you? and he answers, I AM WHO I AM?

First, God exists.

At first, this may seem so obvious and so basic that we wouldn’t need to mention it. Well, it is obvious and it is basic, but the reason we should mention it is that most people live as if it were not true, or as if it were a truth that makes no difference in life.

No Reality Exists Behind God

God Does Not Change

God Is an Inexhaustible Source of Energy

Objectivity Is Crucial

We Must Conform to God, Not He to Us.

This God Has Drawn Near to Us in Jesus Christ.

John 1:1–18 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

When Jesus says “I AM”, it means He is “THE I AM”.

In Jesus Christ, we who are born of God have the amazing privilege of knowing Yahweh as our Father — I AM WHO I AM — THE GOD

who exists

whose personality and power is owing solely to himself

who never changes

from whom all power and energy in the universe flows

and to whom all creation should conform its life.

Banana Nut Bread

“Bread exists to help us know what it is like to be satisfied in Jesus.”TweetShare on Facebook

One of the reasons God created bread — or created the grain and the water and yeast and fire and human intelligence to make it, and I mean the really good kind, that’s not mainly air — is so that when Jesus Christ came into the world, he would be able to use the enjoyment of bread and the nourishment of bread as an illustration of what it means to believe on him and be satisfied with him. I believe that with all my heart.

Bread exists to help us know what it is like to be satisfied in Jesus.

This is true for water as well.

John 4:14 ESV

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.”

() and light (; ) and every other good thing that God has made. Nothing exists for itself. “All things were created through him and for him” (). Every honorable pleasure that we have in the created world is designed by God to give us a faint taste of heaven and make us hunger for Christ. Every partial satisfaction in this life points to the perfect satisfaction in Jesus who made the world.

and light

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6 and every other good thing that God has made. Nothing exists for itself. “All things were created through him and for him” (). Every honorable pleasure that we have in the created world is designed by God to give us a faint taste of heaven and make us hunger for Christ. Every partial satisfaction in this life points to the perfect satisfaction in Jesus who made the world.

John 1:9 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

and every other good thing that God has made. Nothing exists for itself. “All things were created through him and for him”

Colossians 1:16 ESV

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Colossians . Every honorable pleasure that we have in the created world is designed by God to give us a faint taste of heaven and make us hunger for Christ. Every partial satisfaction in this life points to the perfect satisfaction in Jesus who made the world.

Every pleasure that we have in the created world is designed by God to give us a faint taste of heaven and make us hunger for Christ.

Every partial satisfaction in this life points to the perfect satisfaction in Jesus who made the world.

John 6:35 ESV

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.

The enjoyment of warm bread should send our senses and our spirits to Christ as the bread of life.

The enjoyment of cold water when were hot and thirsty should send our senses and our spirits to Christ as the living water.

The pleasures of light making all other natural beauties visible should send our senses and our spirits to Christ as the true light of the world.

But today I simply want us to focus on how Jesus set up this long discussion — namely, with the miracle of making real bread — enough real bread to feed over five thousand people by using only five barley loaves and a few fish.

So the chapter — the story as John tells it — has these two parts:

The miracle itself, verses 1–15

The explanation and controversy over Jesus as the bread of heaven in verses 16–71.

So let’s turn to verses 1–15.

More Than Meets the Eye

The beginning and the end of this section about the feeding of the five thousand shows us both that Jesus is doing more than feeding people with natural bread, and that the people, in general, are in no spiritual condition to see what he what he is doing. We have seen this before in this Gospel. Jesus says something or does something in the natural realm as a way of pointing to the spiritual realm, and the people don’t get it.

He told the leaders in Israel, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” (). And they said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple.”

And they said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple.” He told Nicodemus that he had to be born again, and Nicodemus asked how you get back in your mother’s womb (). He told the woman at the well that he would give her living water (), and she said, But you don’t have a bucket.

He told Nicodemus that he had to be born again, and Nicodemus asked how you get back in your mother’s womb ().

He told the woman at the well that he would give her living water (), and she said, But you don’t have a bucket.

They Saw the Signs He Was Doing

Now notice how this happens again in the feeding of the five thousand. And the point of John’s showing this to us, again and again, is to wake us up from being this dull. His aim is our faith, so he shows both the deadness of unbelief and the greatness of Christ.

Notice first verses 1–2: “After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.” They were following him because of the signs they saw him doing. He was healing the sick, and they were amazed and desired more of the benefits of this power.

But this is not encouraging. We have seen this phrase before: “because they saw the signs he was doing.” said, “Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.” But then John adds in verse 24, “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people” (). Something is wrong with their hearts. They are excited by Jesus’s signs. They believe he is a genuine miracle-worker. But something is wrong.

Enthusiasm for the Wrong Jesus

Now jump to the end of the story of the feeding of the five thousand in , and we will see what’s wrong. “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

“If your enthusiasm is for a Jesus that doesn’t exist, your enthusiasm is no honor to the real Jesus.”TweetShare on Facebook

Why did Jesus withdraw? Because the enthusiasm these people have is not for who he really is. This is so important for our day and for your life. People can have a great enthusiasm for Jesus, but the Jesus they’re excited about is not the real biblical Jesus. It may be a morally exemplary Jesus, or a socialist Jesus, or a capitalist Jesus, or an anti-Semitic Jesus, or a white-racist Jesus, or a revolutionary-liberationist Jesus, or a counter-cultural cool Jesus. But not the whole Jesus who, in the end, gives his life a ransom for sinners (). And if your enthusiasm for Jesus is for a Jesus that doesn’t exist, your enthusiasm is no honor to the real Jesus, and he will leave you and go into the mountain.

Jesus As the Prophet

So these people saw that Jesus was the predicted Prophet and the long-expected king of Israel. Isn’t that right? Verse 14–15: “They said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king Jesus withdrew.” Isn’t he the king of Israel? Isn’t he the Prophet?

The reference to the Prophet points back to where Moses prophesied, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen.” Jesus was indeed this predicted Prophet like Moses. In fact, that may be why in verse 3 he goes up on a mountain for this miracle, the way Moses went up on the mountain. “Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.”

Not the Prophet They Thought

But the people who saw Jesus’s miracle didn’t understand what it means for Jesus to be this predicted Prophet. Look at verses 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.”

In other words, when you think of me as the Prophet like Moses, don’t draw the parallel too tightly. I am like him. But I am oh so much more.

Do you think Moses gave you the bread — the manna — from heaven? No, it was God who gave it. And now I am giving it. Do you understand? I am giving the miracle bread, the inexplicable bread. Out of five barley loaves, I am multiplying the mystery manna, so to speak, the way God did. I am not merely another Moses. I am not merely another prophet. I am like Moses. But I am as much greater than Moses as God is greater than Moses. I am as much greater than manna and barley as the Creator of manna and barley are greater than manna and barley.

And as the Creator of barley and manna, I don’t just give the bread of life; I am the bread of life. You certainly see my power, but you do not yet see the glory of how this power will be used. You don’t know me. You don’t know who I am, or what I have come to do, or what it is about my power that makes it a glorious power.

What They Don’t See

The clearest statement of what that is comes later in verse 51, “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.”

There are at least three things about me that you don’t see.

First, you don’t see that I am going to use my power not to triumph over the Romans but to be for your sins.

Second, you don’t see that I myself am your food. It’s me, and not my gifts, that your soul needs.

And third, you don’t see the connection between these two: the way I become food for the everlasting satisfaction of sinners is by laying down my life. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).

So you call me the Prophet, and so I am, but not the way you think I am.

Jesus As King

But what about “king”? Is he not a king? Verse 15: “Perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” Is he not a king? He is. At the end of his life, Pilate asked him in , “Are you the King of the Jews?” and Jesus answered in verse 36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” In other words, yes, I am a king, but not the way you think I am.

When Jesus says that, he doesn’t mean that this world doesn’t belong to him. It does. He made it. He will come again to claim it. What he means is: I have come into the world the first time to rule men’s lives not by being their military captain, but by being their bread. I am going to triumph not by subduing armies, but by satisfying souls. I am going to conquer not with the power of armed forces but with the power of radically new appetites.

Not the King They Thought

And what we see back in chapter 6 is that the crowds did not understand this at all. Verse 26 is the key to why Jesus withdrew and would have nothing to do with their excitement about his kingship. “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.’” This is why you want to make me king (). To have me as king means full stomachs.

They hadn’t been changed. Jesus didn’t come into the world to lend his power to already existing appetites. That’s the fundamental mistake of the prosperity gospel. Leave people untransformed in what they crave, and simply add the power of Jesus as the way to get it. That is not the gospel. It is a kind of acclamation that Jesus walks away from. “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (). He walks away.

Jesus Is Better

So what is Jesus doing in this miracle of taking five loaves and a few fish and feeding over five thousand people? He is opening a window on who he is. He is manifesting his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father ().

And he is opening this window on his glory not that we might get excited about how useful he might be in getting what we already wanted, but that we might see that he himself is better than anything we ever wanted.

“When Jesus gives his flesh on the cross, he becomes bread for sinners who believe.”TweetShare on Facebook

The point of making bread, as it were, out of nothing — like God making manna — is that the Son of God has come into the world not to give you bread, but to be your bread.

And, since we are all sinners and do not deserve this bread, how will he give it to us? “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” ().

When he gives his flesh on the cross, he becomes bread — all-nourishing, all-satisfying bread — for sinners who believe. The bread that not only gives nourishment, but gives life.

The bread that offers forgiveness and Grace.

He is far better than just bread that the crowd ate or than we tend to eat.

Taste and See

Verse 6 says that Jesus was testing Philip when he said in verse 5, “Where are we going to get bread for these people?”

And I would say, Jesus is testing us now. Right now.

Will we be like the Jewish leaders? “It took 46 years to build this temple, and you’ll build it in three days?”

Will we be like Nicodemus? “How can a man be born again, enter into his mother’s womb?”

Or like the woman at the well? “How will you give me living water when you don’t even have a bucket.”

Or like Philip here in verse 7? “Jesus, two hundred days’ wages couldn’t feed these people.”

Or will we see the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth?

Will we see Jesus crucified for sinners and risen from the dead to become not mainly a Giver, but a Gift, not mainly your benefactor but your bread?

Not there to meet our every need but, rather, to be our every need!

Taste and see that that the Lord is good.

I AM WHO I AM! And may those who know the name of God put their trust in him.

When Jesus says, “I AM the Bread of Life”, He says He is this God, Who we can trust in.

Jesus is not simply a prophet, a provider or a king, He is the “I AM”. The creator and sustainer of Life.

He is the “Bread of Life” He is the “I AM”

Psalm 34:8 ESV

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!