I AM the Bread of Life

You and I have both seen the announcements and the revised announcements about social distancing and self-quarantine. My friends across the country are sharing pictures and videos of empty shelves and customer fights. From my perspective I am seeing a lot panic when people allow their anxiety to turn inward and are focusing primarily on themselves.

In contrast, if you follow me on social media, you have read my thoughts that an outward-faced compassion is a great antidote for inward-faced worry. Today we begin a new sermon series that will take us through the end of April.

We will look at a collection of statement given by Jesus that only appear as “I Am the…” in John’s gospel. The series will hit the pinnacle on Easter as Jesus proclaims “I AM the resurrection and the life” then will continue as he provides direction and provision for us to live the resurrected life.

When I start a new series I like to identify a resource that has influenced my thinking. I do this for 2 reasons: 1) I want you to have a resource if you want to dig a little deeper and 2) I don’t want to pretend that another person’s thoughts are original to me. One such resource that will go along with the next 7 sermons is the book by Warren Wiersbe entitled, “Jesus in the Present Tense”

In today’s message we give our attention to John 6. In John’s record, Jesus reveals His compassion in three ways: He feeds the hungry crowd (John 6:1–15), He delivers His disciples from danger (6:16–24), and He offers the bread of life to a world of hungry sinners (6:25–71). Jesus did this miracle not only to meet human needs, but also that He might deliver a profound sermon about “the bread of life,” a sermon our lost world needs to hear today. What the world needs is Jesus, for He alone is the bread of life.[i]

A Crowd with Questions (John 6:25-34)

John 6:25–34 ESV:2016

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 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. 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.” 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.’ ” 32 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

The Crowd was Hungry (v.31)

1. They start by asking an innocent question, but the two follow-up questions revealed their appetite was not for answers, but for gifts.

a. When did you get here? (v.25)

b. What must we do to make sure we can receive God’s gifts (v.28)

c. What signs can you do to impress us? (v.30)

2. They were looking for loaves (v.26) and manna (31)

3. Just as the woman at the well in John 4 was looking for water, but Jesus offered her “living water”; this crowd is looking for bread, but Jesus offers “bread from heaven” (32, 41, 50), “bread of God” (33), “bread of life” (35), “living bread” (51), and “the bread He gives” namely his flesh (51b).

4. They were looking for a loaf, He was offering them life.

The Crowd was spiritually blind (vv.27-29)

1. They were so fixated on bread for their bellies (as the Hebrews grumbling in the wilderness) that they couldn’t recognize the better gift he offered.

2. They thought that their works could earn God’s favor (28).

3. Jesus said that the only “work” necessary was to believe in the gift God had given.

Transition: When Jesus encountered a crowd that was selfish and fixated on immediate comfoert, He compassionately offered something greater.

A Savior with Compassion (vv.35-58)

John 6:35–58 ESV:2016

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. 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 whoever 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 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. 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.” 41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 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. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

How do we Eat Jesus? (v.40)

1. He was using bread, a familiar material object, to teach a spiritual truth: You receive bread into your body and it sustains life, but receiving Jesus into your [inner man] by faith gives you eternal life.

2. To “eat” something means to assimilate it and make it a part of your physical being.

3. Language uses the metaphor of eating to describe the process of understanding and receiving statements expressed in words.

a. We say things like, “Well, I’ll have to digest what you just said” or

b. “I can’t quite swallow that” or

c. “That’s food for thought.”

d. A businessman says to his staff, “Now, here’s a program you can sink your teeth into.”

e. A student says, “I really devoured that book.”

f. Nobody takes this literally.

4. Scripture uses similar metaphorical language in describing our relationship to God and His truth:

a. “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8).

b. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Ps. 119:103).

c. “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jer. 15:16).

d. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good ” (1 Peter 2:2–3; see also Heb. 5:11–14).

e. “People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

5. How, then, do we “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood? By believing in Jesus Christ and receiving His Word into our hearts.

John Uses Misunderstanding to Teach (v.52)

1. The crowd knew he wasn’t talking cannibalism, but they couldn’t see the metaphor.

2. When Jesus spoke about His death and resurrection, they thought He was referring to destroying and rebuilding the Jewish temple (John 2:13–22).

3. When Jesus taught about sinners being “born again,” Nicodemus thought only of physical birth (3:1–4).

4. When He talked to the Samaritan woman about satisfying spiritual thirst, she thought He meant satisfying physical thirst by drinking water from the well (4:10–15).

5. Jesus isn’t even talking about communion. It wouldn’t be until more than a year later that Jesus would use the Passover Feast to describe his death and give bread and wine to the disciples as a picture of his own body and blood.

a. Paul’s instructions concerning the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23–32) make it clear that the meal is only for believers.

b. We don’t partake in order to have our sins forgiven. Believers are to confess their sins before they partake lest they invite discipline from the Lord.

c. Unbelievers don’t come to the table to be saved; they shouldn’t come at all!

d. And true believers confess their sins first and then come to the table, because the eating and drinking will not cleanse them.

A Meal, Manna or Me? (v.58)

1. This chapter starts with a miracle meal, the Jews dismiss it as only a meal for one day when God fed their ancestors for years, but Jesus asserts that he came from heaven as a meal that satisfies for eternity.

2. 5 times in His sermon Jesus affirmed that He had “come down from heaven” (John 6:33, 38, 50, 51, 58); and 5 times He said that the Father had sent Him (vv. 29, 38, 39, 44, 57). These 10 affirmations from Jesus point to one tremendous truth: He is the Son of God who came down from heaven and was sent by the Father.

Transition: While the Crowd seeked for signs, Jesus described himself as the gift from God.

Conclusion:

Some people come to Jesus just looking for immediate relief. They are like the hungry crowds and they just want a miracle to make them feel good then they can walk away.

Some people come to Jesus just looking for earthly comfort. The woman at the well wanted Jesus to give her water that would relieve her thirst so she wouldn’t have to continue to draw from the well. The Jews in v.34 wanted bread that permanently alleviated their hunger.

Some people come to Jesus as the gift sent from the Father that offers eternal life. Jesus calls us to believe that He is the gift come from the Father and that if we integrate His priorities and incorporate His sacrifice into ourselves, if we surrender to Him as the Lord from Heaven, then if we eat that bread we shall live forever!

[i] Warren W. Wiersbe, Jesus in the Present Tense: The I Am Statements of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2011).