I Am Jesus (bread of life)

I wanted to begin a new sermon series this week that is going to teach us just a little bit about who Jesus is by the words of Jesus himself. Jesus came into this world in a non-traditional way.

But throughout the life of Jesus up until he was baptized, lived a pretty much normal life that didn’t really draw any attention. Except for that moment when he was 12 and stayed behind with the teachers in the temple, the life of Christ was pretty ordinary.

This would make it very difficult for those who knew him, knew about his family and saw him growing up to know him as anything different than Joseph and Mary’s son.

Jesus spent three years communicating to people so that they would understand who he was. This new series which begins this week is called, The I Am’s of Jesus. We have done something like this before but I want for us to look at Jesus for who Jesus says he is. There is no better authority for us to learn who Jesus is than from Jesus himself.

We will take 7 weeks to talk about the 7 I Am statements that Jesus made.

This I AM statement that we are talking about is a very significant phrase. For us, it is just a description, nothing crazy, but it really is a big deal.

The phrase translated “I am who I am” in Hebrew is ehyeh asher ehyeh. The word ehyeh is the first person common singular of the verb to be. It would be used in any number of normal situations: “I am watching the sheep,” “I am walking on the road,” or “I am his father.”

However, when used as a stand-alone description, I AM is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. You can see right away that there is a distinction.

God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. He promises that He will be what He will be; that is, He will be the eternally constant God. He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills to do and to accomplish what He wills to accomplish.

When we read the book of John we see where Jesus begins to reveal who he his. As he teaches, he reveals different aspects of himself through metaphors and illustrations. He will say, “I Am the door, referring to the only way to salvation. He says in another place, I am the resurrection and the life, and he even makes one of the boldest statements in Scripture when he says, “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The beautiful thing for you and me is that Jesus wants to be known. His desire is for his people to know him and so he describes himself with these I am statements.

Book of John

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Jesus has been making a name for himself. He began His ministry with his baptism by John in chapter 1.

Then He begins to call His disciples, those to whom He would entrust his teachings to over the next three years.

He began to preform miracles. He made water into wine in chapter 2

He makes waves with the religious leaders when he cleanses the temple by overturning the money changers tables and uses a whip to get the money hungry sellers out of the area.

He then preaches in Samaria! an un clean town to a woman, not only a woman but a woman who had 5 different husbands.

Then, he heals a mans son even though he wasn’t even in the same area. Later he heals another man who had been crippled but he heals him, miraculously on the wrong day. He offended the leaders because he preformed a miracle on the sabbath.

Finally, Jesus said something that would seal his fate for the rest of his ministry, for the rest of his earthly life. Jesus called God his father.

John 5:16–18 ESV

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 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.

Jesus’ words were not making things any easier for him. He is saying some very controversial things here. He gives a speech and then leaves to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

And of course there are crowds that are following him because they are amazed at the things that Jesus has done. They are intrigued.

And rightly so. It’s not every day that you have someone heal someone who has been crippled, it’s not every day that you see someone heal the sick.

It wasn’t every day that they would hear someone stand up to the leaders and speak with authority the way Jesus did. Of course they are going to follow him. They want to see what he is going to do next. He has successfully grabbed their attention.

I think it is a good thing to grab people’s attention for the sake of the gospel. That is why we set up at the Peach Festival. We give away stuff hoping to get the chance to present the good news of Jesus about someone. Jesus has been on a brilliant public relations tour.

John then describes the next miracle he does where Jesus feeds 5000.

If you don’t know the story, Jesus comes to a hillside and all these people are following Him. THey want to hear what he has to say. But they haven’t really thought about the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere and Jesus asks the question to his disciples, his learners, how are we going to feed all these people?

It’s obvious that Jesus is thinking about their needs. He cares about them. He doesn’t want them to be hungry. But verse 6 says that he wanted to test the disciples. This would help them as they get to know their savior better.

He also wants to show his authority. He has the ability to miraculously feed this crowd out of nowhere.

He uses the disciples to distribute the miraculous food and everybody eats as much as they want to and there is still food left over.

Then Jesus does something that is funny, He leaves. He almost hides. Jesus goes off by himself. His disciples get into a boat, Jesus walks on water, they get to the other side and it is at this point that the people start looking for him. The folks from last night. They now start searching for Jesus.

Eventually, they get across the water and find Jesus and they say, “Jesus, when did you get here?”.

And this begins a conversation that reveals the hearts of the people. And this is important because what these people are going through is what many of us go through.

Jesus, when did you get here? where were you?

John 6:26 ESV

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.

You followed me because you wanted me to take care of your food. You liked the buffet. But then Jesus begins to reveal what he really meant.

John 6:27–29 ESV

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.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

7-28

It is pretty straight forward. Jesus is saying, “believe in me”. We know that the crowd knows what Jesus is talking about here because they answer like this

John 6:30–31 ESV

30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, 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.’ ”

30

Interesting that it seems like one of the problems the people here face is one of the same problems we face; it’s not as much about having bread to eat.

At the root it is the problem of self interest. What is in it for me? What do I get out of this? How will I profit?

This is modern Christianity in a nutshell. How do I benefit? Jesus, what do I get out of the deal? But that has never been the question to ask.

They say, give us bread, take care of us, take care of our needs. And how does Jesus respond? He says, you want bread?

John 6:35 ESV

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.

5

When Jesus talks about bread, he is talking about a person.

We should understand how people thought of bread in the first century. It was a staple. It was a need. It wasn’t an option like it is today. Nobody was eating low carb in the first century, not by choice anyway. Bread was a real tangible giver of life.

So when Jesus calls himself the bread of life, It is an enormous statement because it means that there is no life outside of Him. It means that we are sustained by Him and only by Him.

And the life that Jesus is talking about doesn’t have anything to do with becoming their king. That isn’t what he was doing. He wasn’t there to give them heaven on earth. He was giving them himself.

Up to that point, the people were following Jesus because of what Jesus could give them. They wanted to be comforted and taken care of.

They were looking for bread (food, security, easy life) Does that sound familiar?

There are so many people that are looking to see how they can profit from Jesus. How can my life be made better because of Jesus? are there advantages to following Jesus that are going to benefit me? and there definitely are, but If we think that way then we have it all wrong.

They were looking for bread (food, security, easy life) Does that sound familiar?

Now don’t get me wrong. I want to go to heaven, I want to have eternal life with God but there is so much more than that. If that was it then maybe Jesus would have said, I am your home.

But Jesus said, I am the bread of life. For you and for me that means that he is our sustainer. We survive because of Him. We live because of Him. It’s not about us, it’s about Jesus.

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 27: John Dialogue and Decision

Now this crowd, so enslaved to the flesh, continues to make its demand, still not understanding what Jesus is saying. How glibly they call Him “Lord,” without submitting to His authority, but expecting to gain a favor. They are hungry to have this “bread from heaven,” which they still assume will be a continuous supply of physical bread. They have neither heard nor grasped that the One standing before them is the source of that life.

My Utmost for His Highest October 31st—Discernment of Faith

God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings.

But it is so difficult because it is such an important thing to live for Christ and the longer you live for Christ the more you realize that there are benefits but those benefits don’t outweigh the enormity of the fact that we are to be servants of Jesus. Those benefits fade as we realize the unparalleled work of Jesus. Not our own, but belonging to Him.

Not taking pride in ourselves, but in our savior.

For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way.

It’s funny that people cling to that kind of talk. It’s a pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you will make it. That people are self-made. And there is a pride in that. That kind of thinking is the bread that satisfies only for the moment. It is temporal.

Jesus talks about a better bread, not like the “bread” that we eat and still die. This bread keeps us alive forever. And the attitude that comes with it is not, “what can I get out of this?” but how can I give more and more of my life to Him? Even if it isn’t working out for me the way I would like?

I think Mr Oswald Chambers does a great job at capturing this attitude of our dependency on Christ as he asks the question:

Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him?

When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see

The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ’s triumphs. We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ.

Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.

I do a disservice to you if I say, “come to Jesus because he will meet all your earthly needs”, He may, but He may not. If you are like me there are many prayers that I have prayed that have not been answered in the way I wanted them to. But it isn’t always about me... It isn’t always about us folks. It isn’t about what Jesus can do for us in this life time.

That sounds kind of gloomy to a 21st century American. But it really isn’t.

Jesus did come in the flesh which means that he does understand our physical needs, but he is telling us that there is something better, something more. There is something eternal, that does not perish.

Jesus did come in the flesh which means that he does understand our physical needs, but he is telling us that there is something better, something more. There is something eternal, that does not perish.

His plan was to come into this world, to live as a man, with all of the afflictions and stresses and even limitations that come from being a man. But he was also God, who after preaching truth was tortured and executed as the only acceptable sacrifice to cover, to ransom our imperfections.

Our benefit of relationship with Jesus makes me a servant in this life. Not a complainer when things don’t go my way. Jesus is here for you because He loves you, not because you or I are good, we aren’t. But He loves us and sacrificed for us to serve Him.