I AM the bread of life

I AM the bread of life

I am the bread of life.  These are the words of Jesus in John 6:48.

Think about somebody actually saying this: I am the bread of life.  What does that even mean?  I am the bread of life.

Bread is considered a staple food—i.e., a basic dietary item. Bread is such a basic food item that it is used interchangeably with food in general. We even use the phrase “breaking bread together” to indicate the sharing of a meal with someone. 

Bread represents food in general.

Think about it… Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted to turn the stones into what? BREAD.

In the example that Jesus gave His Disciples on how to pray the words He chose to use were “Give us this day our DAILY BREAD,…”

Bread is representative of food.

Without food, you will die.  You need food to live.  Food is necessary to sustain life.  You must consume food to live.

So here is a man, Jesus, claiming, I am the bread of life.

What is he saying?  According to our definition, he is saying I am that which you must eat in order to live.  You must consume me for life.

Our goal this morning is to explore the implications of Jesus’ statement, “I am the bread of life.”  We want to know what that means exactly and how it applies to our lives.

We’ll begin by setting the context for this statement, so turn with me to John 6.  

As you do I want you to recall our teaching from last week – our introductory overview in which we stated 4 points that would be a common thread continually emerging throughout this series.  

• Jesus is God
• Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures
• Jesus is the true Israel
• Those in Christ make up the true Israel

Today’s text really emphasizes one of those points in particular – Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

As we walk through the text I want you to see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Also, I want you to THINK SPIRITUALLY.  Think spiritual, not physical.  Think heavenly, not earthly.  Think in terms “of God”, not in terms “of man” or “of the flesh.”  Think spiritual, not natural.  Why?  Context.  

Everything in John’s gospel up to this point has been a movement toward the spiritual.  His gospel starts in chapter one calling Jesus the light.  Literal physical light?  No, in a spiritual sense.  Later in the chapter, behold, the lamb of God.  Is Jesus literally a lamb?  No, as the fulfillment of the Scriptures he is the antitype of the Passover lamb – he is the lamb of God in a spiritual sense.  Chapter 2 destroy this temple and will rebuild it in 3 days.  Literal physical temple?  No.  His body – temple in a spiritual sense.  Chapter 3. Nicodemus you must be born again.  Literally go into my mother’s womb and be physically born?  No, reborn, in a spiritual sense.  Born of God – the heavenly birth.  Chapter 4 woman at the well.  A time is coming when you won’t worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem at a physical temple in a physical place.  Why, because God is spirit and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth.  The gospel ends no differently than it began.  Before Pilate in chapter 18.  Are you king of the Jews?  My kingdom is not of this world.  My kingdom is from another place.  It is a spiritual kingdom a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly kingdom according to the flesh.  In John’s gospel, the movement is towards the spiritual as Jesus ushers in the Messianic age in conjunction with the NC.

Our text is no different.  Think in terms of the spiritual.

So as we move into our text:

• see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures
• think of Jesus in terms of the spiritual, not natural.

I am the bread of life.  How does somebody say that?  At what point in a conversation can you say that?  That’s something you don’t just bust out with when you’re hanging out.  That kind of statement requires a segue.

How did Jesus segue into this statement?  Jesus is the master of segues.  He will be in conversations with people and take their words and turns the conversation into a conversation about the Father.  Jesus is so heavenly minded that he is SO earthly good.  Here it is no different.  I am the bread of life is no arbitrary statement that has nothing to do with the circumstances.  I am the bread of life is a statement that stems from the circumstances and has everything to do with the context of the conversation.

The context of our passage:  Jesus had been performing miracles, healing the sick.  This drew great crowds.  The crowds were following him.  There was a multitude.  Jesus asked his disciples “Where shall we buy BREAD for these people to eat?”  Phillip replied, “8 months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.  Andrew spoke up and said here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.  Jesus said, yep.  5000 men (not counting women and children).  He fed them, with that.  Then they picked up 12 baskets of leftovers.  8 month’s wages couldn’t provide enough for each person to have one bite.  Enough to satisfy one family was distributed to 5000 and everyone ate as much as they wanted and there were leftovers.  Miraculous!  Jesus did a miracle and he did it with BREAD.  He miraculously multiplied BREAD.  He fed people.  

Bread – the staple food, representative of food in general.  Food – that which people need to live.  Jesus took a little bit of bread and multiplied it.

V14 – After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”  Remember in our study of types and shadows, Moses was God’s prophet.  In Deut 18 Moses said that God would raise up a Prophet like him.  The people said surely this man, Jesus is that Prophet like Moses.  In this way, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures (point 2 of our sermon series).  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures about the Prophet (Deut 18).

V15 – Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.  Now if Jesus intended to set up an earthly kingdom, reigning on the throne in physical Jerusalem over ethnic Israel, that was His chance.  I guess He got stage fright.  NO.  That wasn’t Jesus’ intention.  Jesus, the king of the Jews, the king of kings is the king of a kingdom that is not of this world, but His every intention was to set up and reign over the kingdom of heaven, a spiritual kingdom.  Think in terms of spiritual, not physical, of God, not of man, heavenly, not earthly.

Jesus withdrew so that this wouldn’t happen.  The disciples and Jesus crossed the lake.  The next day, the crowds crossed the lake in search of Jesus.  We pick up in John 6:25.

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 

 ²⁶ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” 

Jesus is saying you aren’t looking for me because of the miracle, but because of the food.  Food is necessary for life.  If you want to eat, you have to work.  But this guy just makes food and gives it out – let’s hang out with him.  Don’t work for food that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life which I will give you.  I’ve given you something that satisfied your stomach, but I have food that will satisfy your soul.

 ²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 

 ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 

Perhaps your thought of the Christian life is this is a religion in which I have a list of the things that I must do.  Perhaps you came today wanting to know what work you must do in order to do the works that God requires.  Simple: believe in the one He has sent.  That’s it.  Some of you are weary and burdened, you’re tired trying to earn God’s favor, trying to be a good person, trying to live the Christian life.  You can’t earn God’s favor that way.  The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.

 ³⁰ So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

That’s all we do?  Believe in the one God sent?  What miraculous sign can you do for us that will make us believe you?  Because feeding 5000 men with 2 fish and 5 loaves is not enough.  People can be so hard-hearted and short sighted that what God does is never enough.  Their mentality is, I need to see this in order to believe, to trust, to love.  I would be sold out to God if he would just ______.  They want everything on their terms.  

Believe me, Jesus says.  What miraculous sign will you do that will give you credibility so that we have a reason to believe you?  

• I’ve turned water into wine.  
• I’ve healed the sick.  
• I fed 5000 men with only a little bit of food.  

What more do you need to believe me?  Well, just do one more miracle.  And after that, just one more.  Without faith, it is impossible to believe God.  He has given men every reason to believe Him.  But people make excuses.  

So many Christians are hypocrites.  I’d believe if there weren’t so many hypocrites in the church.  True, hypocrites in the church – humans.  Let God be true and every man a liar.  Don’t let the falsehood of humans keep you from believing God.  Without faith it is impossible to believe God.  

I’ve been hurt by the church.  I’ve been hurt by the church too.  It’s made up of human beings who make mistakes.  Don’t let the mistakes of humans keep you from trusting God.  He has given us every reason to believe him, to trust him to love Him.

God, just give me a boyfriend.  God just give me a spouse.  God just give me this, just give me that.  When is what God does enough?  God has done enough.  He has given us every reason to believe Him, to trust Him to love Him.

The crowds aren’t satisfied with the miraculous feeding.  Wasn’t enough.  What miraculous sign will you do?  Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”  Can you make bread come down out of heaven?

Perhaps you aren’t familiar with that idea.  It is found in Exodus 16.  Mark your place here in John 6 because we’ll be right back here.  If you’d like to turn to Ex 16; I’ll be reading a portion of the text there.  We recently camped out quite a bit on the exodus of Israel out of Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Ex 16:1-5 ¹ The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” 

 ⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” 

So God miraculously provided bread from heaven.  Skip down with me to v31-

³¹ The people of Israel called the bread manna. [manna means “what is it”] It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. ³² Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’” 

 ³³ So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD to be kept for the generations to come.” 

 ³⁴ As the LORD commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony, that it might be kept. ³⁵ The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

Flip back to John 6 with me.  

 ²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 

 ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 

 ³⁰ So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

That’s what we just read about in Ex 16.  (really ironic because the manna wasn’t enough for them to believe God) God gave them bread from heaven.  Now that is really something.  You may have multiplied the barley loaves, but Moses gave the people of his day bread from heaven.

 ³² Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” 

If you’ve got bread from heaven, give us that!!!

 ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.

REMEMBER:

• Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures
• Think spiritual

Moses provided bread from heaven for his generation.  That would have been really neat to see.  But right here, right now, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  That bread from heaven, the manna, was simply a type.  That was type, this is antitype.  That was shadow, this is substance.  I’m glad you brought that up – I am the fulfillment of that.  That was pointing to me.

Just as manna came down from God to give life to his people, Jesus came down from God to give life to his people.

Manna was bread that came down from God to give life – physical life – to sustain Israel, physically.  But Jesus is the antitype, He is the substance, the reality, the fulfillment.  As we have been saying, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.  Jesus is the true bread from Heaven who gives life to the world – not just physical life, barley loaves do that.  If physical life was the need, there would be no need for Jesus – they already had a pulse.  But Spiritual life is the desire and concern.  Jesus is the true bread from heaven that gives spiritual life to the world.

Spiritual life!!!

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Jesus is the true bread from heaven that gives SPIRITUAL life to the world (think spiritual)

VERSE 35 ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Really?  I Came to Jesus in March 2000 and I’m hungry and thirsty right now.  Jesus isn’t talking about physical hunger and physical thirst.  Think spiritually.

   ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 

 ⁴¹ At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

   ⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 

 ⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

 ⁵³ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Once again, we must think spiritually.  If we don’t we will be guilty of the very same thing that the Jews of Jesus’ day are guilty of.  V52 – How can this man give us his flesh to eat?  After all, he is saying he is the bread of life.  If anyone eats of this bread, which is his flesh, he will live forever.  These listeners are thinking natural.  They are thinking earthly, physical.  They are thinking that Jesus is trying to turn them into cannibals and vampires.  I thought this guy was cool.  He was doing miracles and feeding people and now he’s just going weird on us.  Eat my flesh.

Their thinking is natural.  In order to understand the essence of what Jesus is communicating our thinking must shift from the natural to the spiritual.  

Jesus is NOT SAYING that in order for a never-ending pulse you must sink your incisors into my epidermis, chew it up and swallow it.  

JESUS IS SAYING, if you want spiritual life, you need me.  If you want eternal life, believe in me.  Your forefathers ate the manna.  That was just a shadow; Jesus is the true bread from heaven.  He is the fulfillment.  The reality.  Those who ate the manna died.  But if you feed on this bread of life, you will live forever.  That is obviously not physically or else there has never ever been a true believer in history because every believer since Jesus has eventually died a physical death.  Though the body expires, the spirit continues with the Lord and with Paul we can say to live is Christ and to die is gain.  For a believer physical life means spiritual life here on earth knowing God, reconciled to him.  Physical death means spiritual life in heaven knowing God.  Those who believe shall not perish but have everlasting life.

So back to where we started.  Jesus said I am the bread of life.  What does he mean by that and what life application is there for us?

Bread is representative of food and essential for life.  Jesus is saying I am the bread of life.  I am that which is necessary for life.  You need me to live.

• Just as you need physical bread for physical life you need the bread of life, Jesus, for spiritual life.  In other words, Jesus is necessary for salvation.
• Feast on Jesus and enjoy it.  Nobody dreads eating.  Food is yummy.  Let’s get together and have dinner.  Let’s go on a date.  What do you want to do?  Eat.  Let’s get together with some friends.  Let’s have them over for dinner.  Let’s get together and do lunch.  At work can’t wait till lunch break.  We like to feast.  Carry that over.  Feast on Jesus not just because you have to but because you want to like to desire to.  
• Good for you
• Enjoyable

You don’t just eat because you have to.  It is enjoyable.  It is good for your belly.  You feel good physically.  Consuming the bread of life is good for your soul.  You will feel good spiritually.

• Daily bread.  Need Jesus daily and often in the day.  Don’t consume bread one time and straight forever.  Consume Jesus constantly.  Best to eat small meals.  Few huge meals bad for blood sugar levels, less energy, etc.  Consume Jesus constantly.  He is our daily bread that nourishes our soul.  He satisfies more than earthly bread.

Communion.