I am the Bread of Life

Intro: Last week we studied the feeding of the 5000. We talked about the idea that Jesus is in no way limited in power by people or resources. Today we will cover the second part of this account called by many as the Bread of Life discourse.

After Jesus feeds the 5000, Jesus send his disciples back across the sea to Caperneum by boat. Jesus goes off by himself to pray. The disciple were out in the middle of the sea and Jesus simply walks out to them. Upon seeing this sight his disciples were terrified thinking that an evil spirit was coming toward them. Jesus gets in the boat and immediately they were on the other side.

This brings us to today’s passage of Scripture

I. Fans vs. Redeemed

If Jesus was planting a church today he would have been crushing every metric of success. I mean every where he went people new who he was. They saw what he could do. In last weeks account we saw that he had preached too and fed over 5000 people at one time. Crowds gathered everywhere he went.

He would have been considered by today’s standards a church planting rock star. This was mainstream Christianity at its finest. You create the experience, draw the crowd, and then do what it takes to keep them coming.

Yet Jesus instead of doing what it took to keep the crowd, he rebukes them by telling them the truth about their souls.

John 6:22–26 CSB

22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone. 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Your not looking for me because you believe in who I am, your looking for me only for the experience I provide. I filled your bellies and now you want more.

The “signs” that Jesus is referring too is the miracles that he did that were to point the sinner to the redeemer.

In this we see that not all devoted fans of Jesus, are redeemed.

Jesus is more than just Sunday morning entertainment. He is the very Bread of Life

There are many in who are willing to be temporal followers of Jesus. In other words they eat up the experiences we in the church produce for them. They like the music, the energy , the community yet to actually surrender their lives to him seems like a foreign concept.

II. The Temporal Bread Vs. The Eternal Bread

John 6:27–29 CSB

27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

Jesus tells them “look your working hard at following me around for the temporal benefits, but you are completely missing the point.

So they ask Jesus this question. If we’ve got it all wrong than “What can we do to perform the works of God?

Notice how in Jesus Answer he takes the focus off of the work they do and puts it back on the Work of God.

John 6:29 CSB

29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

Jesus Answer is simple. The work that God has done through the sending of His son into the world, the signs He has performed, the words he has taught was all to draw those with willing hearts to believe.

III. They blame their unbelief on Jesus

How often have you heard someone say that they would believe in Jesus if he would just…(fill in the blank).

Look at how the crowd responds

John 6:30–31 CSB

30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Moses gave us bread from heaven…your bread was just of the regular type.

Do you see how to those that have hard hearts their will never be enough evidence to prove to them that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

The evidence is already out there. He has already revealed himself. Yet these hard-hearted people cannot see it. Not because there isn’t enough evidence but because they would then be forced to recognize their sin and their need for redemption.

IV. Jesus reveals His Identity

John 6:32–40 CSB

32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. 36 But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. 37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who 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 This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Look Moses didn’t do anything it was my Father and Just like in the wilderness he sustained your life with Bread from heaven. He has now sent me as the bread of Life so that you might have eternal life.

I’d like to point something out to you. In our churches today their is often an ongoing discussion of the free-will of man vs. the election of God for those to be saved.

I would like to point out to you today that in this passage of scripture we see both of these elements.

We see that everyone the father gives the son will come to him.

But then we also see in verse 40 it is the will of the father that everyone who sees the Son will believe.

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Now many people will try to put God in a nice little box of human understanding and create a entire doctrine that will lead to endless debates over Free will vs. Sovereign Election.

You can do that if you want to.....Are both election and free will seen in scripture? Yes.

So which one is it? Does man have a freewill to choose Christ or Does God elect them to salvation? Yes.

J Vernon Magee put it this way.

Thru the Bible Vol. 38: The Gospels (John 1–10) Jesus Gives a Discourse on the Bread of Life

Election and free will are both in this verse. “All that the father giveth me shall come to me” states a truth, and that is election. But wait a minute! “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” is also true, and “him that cometh to me” is free will. I don’t know how to reconcile them, but they are both true. The Father gives men to Christ, but men have to come. And the ones that come are the ones, apparently, whom the Father gives to Him. You and I are down here, and we don’t see into the machinery of heaven. I don’t know how God runs that computer of election, but I know that He has given to you and to me a free will and we have to exercise it.

The problem with these debates is that those on the side of election will isolate all of the verses dealing with this subject as proof.

Those on the side of free will do the same. However, scripture is not intended to be read in isolation and must take in account all of the passages together. In this debate, I Think God looks down and says , “You all have no idea how heaven operates”

Does man have free will…Yes

Is God sovereign....Yes

How does this all work together.....I have no idea and neither do you.

I enjoy a good debate over these things like most pastors but I refuse to create a doctrine over things that are beyond our comprehension and understanding.

In most cases, the passages that mentions these concepts . These concepts are not the mail point of the passage.

Just like today, Jesus is pointing them to the Goodness of God in sending the son as the Bread of Life.