I Am the Bread of Life
Discover how Jesus sustains our spiritual hunger, offering Himself as the essential nourishment for our souls, in a world full of temporary satisfactions.
Transcript
Today we are covering the first of the seven I Am’s of Jesus.
In the scripture reading of John 6: 24-60, the word bread comes up 16 times. If you add the words loaves, manna, and food, there are 23 mentions of bread in some form. So, what do you think the subject of this passage and today’s sermon is about?
Yes, BREAD!
What does bread conjure up for you?
Pleasing to all your senses?
Warm, delicious aroma filling up kitchen?
Soft, moist, and melting in your mouth?
Satisfying to your stomach?
Sustenance and life?
For the Jews bread had profound significance for everyday survival and for the survival of their people. Because of its importance, bread became both a uniting and dividing object for the people in this passage. Let me give you the fuller context of the verses we just read.
At the end of John 5 we see Jesus angry at the Jewish leaders who are persecuting him for healing on the Sabbath, when the Law of Moses forbade them to do any work. Jesus ends by saying to them,
“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” (John 5:45-47)
Then in the earlier verses of John 6, we see Jesus doing a miracle involving bread. From a little boy’s lunch of five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed 5,000 men and who knows how many women and children!
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (John 6:14-15)
Bread drew the crowd of people to Jesus even more than his miraculous healings! So, they went looking for Jesus; they searched until they found him. We aren’t told how they were going to make Jesus into a king, but Jesus knew their wrong intent and selfish motive.
Why would the crowd want Jesus to be their king?
Wouldn’t you want a leader who could provide miraculously for all your needs? You would never have to worry again about starving or working hard so you don’t starve!
The way to ensure that the bread would keep coming was;
to put Jesus in a position where he would be obligated to provide for them and
to put him in a place where they could easily find him when they needed him to do something for them.
They searched for Jesus so they could fill their stomachs. But it is apparent from their conversation with Jesus, that these people
didn’t believe who Jesus said he was,
and they didn’t seem to care about the things Jesus was offering to give them.
Jesus told them they needed to believe in him, the one God had sent from heaven. But instead they wanted proof of his identity and power before they could believe in him, and they demanded a sign from Jesus—as if his miracle of feeding them the day before did not count.
“What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
Moses fed millions of people for 40 years! Can you beat that, Jesus?
They were not unlike their ancestors who 1400 years before;
had only wanted God to give them food to fill their stomachs
but did not believe he was going to give them a new life of freedom and victory.
What they failed to mention is that their ancestors had grumbled and complained that Moses had brought them out of Egypt only to starve them to death in the dessert. And they definitely did not bring up the fact that it was their ancestors’ disbelief and disobedience that had caused the 40 years of wandering
Exodus 16:4
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.
31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
[Manna sounds like the Hebrew for What is it? (see verse 15)]
From wanting to make him their king, literally overnight the crowd didn’t think Jesus was that special.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds way too much like something I would do—and have done.
Follow Jesus for the things he can give me that make my life easier.
Quickly forget the incredible and even miraculous things he has already done for me.
Get upset when he doesn’t show up and do the things I need him to do for me now.
Put Jesus in a box on the shelf and take him out only when I am desperate and need a miracle.
Wait for proof that Jesus is real and that he is taking care of me.
What Jesus said to the crowd about bread pushed them away from him. Once again, the people showed that their hope was in Moses.
Jesus had to counter their faulty beliefs and misplaced hope:
First, it wasn’t even Moses who gave their ancestors the bread from heaven!
Second, Jesus’ Father is the one who gives the true bread from heaven.
John 6:35; 48-51
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
If the crowd of people were upset before about the bread Jesus was talking about, now they would be even more so.
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, 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 them 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 them.
Not just the crowd of people following Jesus, but also many of Jesus’ disciples found what Jesus said extremely challenging, and some even found it offensive:
challenging because the Mosaic Law forbade Jews to drink blood
and offensive because of the graphic picture of cannibalism.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?
While Jesus was speaking of spiritually matters and spiritual eating and drinking, the people were thinking of manna and eating physical food. Jesus explained to them that eating his body and drinking his blood meant coming to him and believing in him for eternal life, but the crowd and even some of his disciples could only think in terms of their stomachs—and they could not stomach eating flesh.
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus promised that ANYONE may eat the bread of life! And he promised that EVERYONE who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will:
never go hungry, never die,
will be raised up at the last day,
will live forever and have eternal life,
and will remain in Jesus and Jesus in them.
To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to come to Jesus, believe in him, and receive the life eternal that he alone can give.
What is your response to Jesus’ proclamation that he is the bread of life?
Confusion: Does it confuse you because you know how to eat real bread, but the thought of eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood is hard to imagine let alone know how to do?
Disbelief: Does is challenge what you believe about who Jesus is?
Taking Offense: Does it offend you that Jesus claims he is the bread of life—which means nothing and no one else can save you from death or give you life?
Belief: Do you believe and say with Peter, “Lord, you have the words of eternal life. I have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God”? Do believe in Jesus and accept his gift of eternal life?
Communion
Jesus is the bread of life that came down from Heaven. The bread is his flesh, which he gave for the life of the world. He said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” Believers in Jesus Christ take what we call communion or the Lord’s Supper as a symbolic eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood and a communion with Jesus.
Remember, to eat his flesh and drink his blood is to come to Jesus, believe in him, and receive the life eternal that he alone can give.
If you believe in Jesus as the one who has saved you from death and you have accepted him as the Lord of your life, you may participate in this communion meal, whether you have been baptized or not.
Children, some of you believe in Jesus already and have a relationship with God; before taking the bread and juice, please talk with your parent or guardian.
In a moment here as the worship team begins the song, I invite you to come and receive the bread and the juice.
You can take a piece of the bread and dip it the juice, or
You can take one of the prepackaged wafer and juice.
Parents and guardians, we also have blessing crackers for your children and teens who are not yet ready to participate in Communion.
We take the Lord’s Supper together to remember what Jesus has done for us by coming from heaven into the world and dying on the cross for us. As you eat the bread and drink the juice, reflect on what Jesus tells us about this Lord’s Supper.
In Mark 14: 22-24 we read:
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.
And the Apostle Paul explained to us in 1 Corinthians 11:6 that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
You may come up when you are ready.
