Let's Get This Bread

Scripture

John 6:22–40 ESV

On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 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. 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.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 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.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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.”

Intro

Anytime I have plans to go to the movies, I starve myself all day. I starve myself because I love movie theatre popcorn. Like, I love it. It’s my favorite snack, and when I go to the movies, it becomes my favorite meal. I refuse to eat all day, and when I get to the theatre, i purchase my ticket, and i go straight to the counter and order a large popcorn and a large coke. Some theatres will take the popcorn and they’ll layer it with butter. So, they’ll take the bucket, fill it up halfway, then pour butter on it and shake it around. Then, they’ll put a little more popcorn in, then more butter, and this repeats until its full and evenly layered, ensuring that every single bite has the perfect amount of butter to popcorn ratio. Now sadly, some theatres, don’t do this. So, I always ask if I can do it myself, and this makes the cashier mad, because now he or she has to wait, but I have to do it. I have to make sure that I have the perfect butter to popcorn ratio. Except, I never get the ratio right. I either put too little butter, or I put way too much butter. I’ve briefly shared this story before, but one time, I really put too much butter. Like, way too much. Like at the bottom of the bucket was a thick pool of leftover butter. But it tasted so good. So, I’m watching this movie, and I’m eating my overly buttered popcorn, and I finish it, and I’m driving home from the theatre, and I start feeling like trash. I’m like, this is weird, I’ve never felt like this before. And my eyes start to get heavy, and I’m like, I think I’m going to pass out… So I pull over on the side of the highway, and my breathing is heavy, and I’m pretty sure at some point my blood stopped pumping because it was so full of butter. At this point, I’m thinking “Okay, where did I go wrong?” After having not eaten all day, I was starving, but instead of filling myself up with something that would provide my body with nutrients to satisfy me for a long period of time, I filled myself up with buttered popcorn, which has little to no nutritional value, and while it was satisfying for a brief moment, I was ultimately left unfilled.

But, being unfilled, or being unsatisfied doesn’t just apply to us physically, it applies to us emotionally, relationally, and spiritually too, and while its important for our physical needs to be met, Jesus offers to fill more than that. So, turn with me to John Chapter 6:22-40.

Read Passage

Thanks be to God

Today we’re going to begin a sermon series on the 7 I AM statements found in John’s Gospel. So, I am the bread of life’; ‘I am the light of the world’, ‘I am the door/gate of the sheep’; ‘I am the good shepherd’; ‘I am the resurrection and the life’; ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’, and ‘I am the true vine’. Each of these 7 statements indicates in some way that Jesus is making God present in the here and now. In the Old Testament, God identifies himself in as “I AM who I AM.” And so in these sayings, Jesus is saying that he too is “I AM who I AM.” And in these seven statements, Jesus elaborates on the “I AM,” explaining to us that ultimately it is he who we need.

as “I AM who I AM

I don’t usually title my sermons. I’m just really bad at it. But, for fun, I put at the top of my notes the title “Let’s get this bread.” And so, in this first statement, Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life. Now, when I think of bread, I think these rolls my mom bakes for thanksgiving dinner. They’re these little dinner roles, and she’ll make like 40 of them, and they’re just meant to be a side. So, I’ll grab like four, and after I finish my meal, I’ll take them and I’ll soak up all of the grease and juice and stuff from dinner, and I’ll eat the rolls. And they have the perfect combination of buttery, and salty, and sweet. All that to say, that when I think of bread, this is what I think of. For me, it’s just an addition to the already huge meal that I have. For me, and for most of us, bread is a special treat that we add to our meal. We might miss it if it weren’t there, but we could live without.

In contrast, in the Mediterranean culture of Jesus’ day, bread was the basic and most important part of the diet. If you had bread and water, you had a meal. Add to that some wine, fish or meat, and a little bit of cheese, then you basically had a feast. So, when Jesus says “I AM the bread of life,” he’s not saying “I’m a plate of dinner rolls you can add to your already massive meal,” rather, he’s saying “I’m what you need to survive.” Jesus is saying that he is the only one who can truly nourish us in this 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.’ ”

Old Testament Background

A lot of what Jesus does throughout the Gospels is he reinterprets or relives events that happened in Israel’s history. As y’all probably know, the Bible contains an Old Testament and a New Testament. The Old Testament tells us the story of Israel, God’s chosen people. When Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, the Jewish people who were listening to him would have instantly remembered the story of Moses feeding the Israelites in the wilderness with bread. So, it’s not surprising that in verse 31 someone says “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread to eat.’” This quote comes from the Old Testament book, Exodus. Jesus’ response is interesting. He says, “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.” Now, obviously the Jews are interested in this bread. And they respond “Sir, give us this bread always.” But, they’re fixated on literal bread. They’re focused on the materialistic things they think Jesus is offering them. And this makes sense.

Literary Background

Right before this passage, Jesus had literally just miraculously fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. So, the crowd is like, “yo, this guy fed us yesterday, let’s go back and get another free meal.” So, as we just read, they load up in their boats, and they seek after Jesus. Now, what we didn’t read this morning was the few verses right before this, and they explain that Jesus left the crowd because they wanted to make him a king. Because Jesus fed them, they wanted to make him their king. They were willing to follow him as long as their stomach were filled. And even though Jesus met their physical need, this wasn’t his primary purpose for coming into the world. As I said in the beginning of this, Jesus wants to fill more than our physical needs. And so, when the crowd finds Jesus, and they’re like “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus goes in. He says “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 knows they’re only seeking him because their stomachs have been filled.

Don’t work for the food that perishes

And here’s our first kind of application point. A lot of us only seek Jesus because we think he will meet our physical, materialistic needs and wants. Now, it’s true, Jesus loves his people and he does sometimes bless us with material things. People needed bread to live, and so he gave them bread. But, as I’ve said a few times, he meets so much more than that. All of the materialistic things we seek after will perish, and so Jesus warns the Jews, and he’s warning us in verse 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...” And so many of us are working so hard towards things that will perish. You have academic goals, career goals, life goals that you’re working so hard towards, and some of you are praying, “Jesus, please give me these things that I need,” and here Jesus is saying, “what you need is me.” The things all of you are working so hard towards are important, and it’s okay to be working towards these goals, but you can’t seek after these things hoping that they’ll fill you up. You can’t seek after success hoping that it’s going to satisfy you. All things perish. All of the things we work towards in this life perish. And so Jesus says, “work towards the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”

Work for the Food that Endures

In response to this, the crowd asks “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” And Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” And this next part is kind of comical, they respond by saying, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” Now, as I said earlier, Jesus literally Just fed 5,000 people miraculously. That was the sign. They completely ignore the sign Jesus just did. And this is where the Jews bring up the story of Moses feeding the Israelites in the wilderness. But, Jesus goes with it, and this is where he says “it wasn’t Moses who fed you, 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.” And so they respond saying “please give us this bread.” And this is where Jesus says “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Spiritual Hunger and Thirst

The bread Jesus offers is himself. It gives us eternal life and it satisfies the deep longing of our souls and our lives. The feeling of emptiness that all of us have probably felt, the lack of direction, the search for meaning and purpose, all of these are satisfied in Jesus, and only Jesus. Those who come to him, those who come to him and believe in him are satisfied in this way.

Coming to Jesus

Jesus says to work for the food that endures, and this work is merely to believe. It’s to believe in him. That’s all we have to do. All we have to do is believe. We have to acknowledge that we can’t do it. That we can’t find satisfaction, true meaning, in this life a part from Jesus. The only thing we can do is believe in him. Notice, Jesus doesn’t say “come to church every week, listen to a sermon, sing songs, pray and then you’ll get the bread of life,” or “go serve the poor and needy and then you’ll earn the bread of life.” No, Jesus is the bread of life. And he gives the bread to those who believe in him. And some of us get hung up here. We don’t want something if we can’t work for it. So we say, I’ll find another way. A way that I can make on my own, without Jesus. And so we go that route, and we keep working and working towards something, but we’re still not ever fulfilled. What we have to do is simple. We just have to believe in Jesus.

The Promise

When we believe in Jesus, he gives us himself. He fills us with meaning and purpose, and while life is still hard, and there’s still suffering, and there are still things we want and need to survive physically, we’re spiritually filled up. And verse 40 tells us the promise that all of us who believe have: it says “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believe in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

This life comes to an end. All of the things that we work so hard towards will probably outlast us, but they’ll eventually perish too. While this life ends, Jesus promises eternal life to those who believe. Are we working towards that life, or are we working to be filled by things that aren’t really filling in a life that ends after maybe 90 years? All that we are and all that we have is a gift from God. Material things are not evil, and it’s not even wrong to want them. But Jesus reminds us here that there is something more important than the material, there is something more important than our success, or our grades or test scores: it’s a relationship with God revealed in Jesus Christ and made present through the Holy Spirit. If we truly want full and complete lives, then we need the bread that comes from Jesus himself. We need Jesus. Only Jesus can satisfy us.

So, Who is Jesus? He’s the bread of life. All who come to him and believe will no longer hunger for meaning or thirst for purpose. All who come to Jesus will find belonging, and will find abundant and eternal life.

One more thing, and then I’ll close. Last week, 11 of us came back from Philly Missions. Now, if you were on the trip, you know. It was hard. We’re not sleeping much, and we’re out in the hot sun all day, and I’m pretty sure at least half of the team got dehydrated at some point. There’s a lot of difficulty and discomfort, but there’s also a lot of joy. And for me, like, i hardly ate any food all week. Like, I ate so little food, that I’m pretty sure my stomach shrunk. When I did sit down to eat, I got full way quicker because I just couldn’t hold any food. But, even with little food, little sleep, and a lot of discomfort Jesus met my needs and the teams needs. I weirdly felt full the entire trip, even though it was stressful.