John 6:35 - I AM the Bread of Life
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Introduction
Introduction
[ILLUS] I always wanted more.
Every year just before Christmas, someone would leave a homemade loaf of sourdough bread on my desk.
I’m sure they expected me to take it home and enjoy it over the course of several days, but it never left the office.
I would eat the entire thing before the day was through.
When you’re in your mid-20s and your metabolism is still high, you can do things like that.
When you’re in your mid-40s and you have little self-control, you can still do things like that, the body just pays a higher price for it!
That bread was delicious, but I always wanted more.
What’s the best bread you’ve ever had?
Who made it?
Didn’t you always want more?
[CONTEXT & READING] When Jesus fed the 5,000 (which was probably more like 20,000), “He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them food from heaven; they ate the bread of angels, and He gave them food in abundance,” (Psalm 78:24-25).
Jesus is the best bread-maker, and that bread was so good they followed Him across the Sea of Galilee in hopes of getting more of it.
But when they met up with Jesus again, he told them that the bread He gave them the day before was a sign pointing to who He is, and He said that those who would row across a sea for a loaf of bread, should work hard for food that does not perish but endures to eternal life.
The people asked Jesus how they could possibly work the works of God to get this bread that endures to eternal life.
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
The people knew that Jesus was claiming to be the one sent by God, the one they should believe in, but they were still thinking about yesterday’s bread.
30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so 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 out of heaven to eat.’ ”
In other words, they said, “Give us more bread, Jesus.”
32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will 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 the one who comes to Me I will certainly not 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 of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Some of the Jews grumbled against Jesus because He said that He had come down out of Heaven, but Jesus said to them…
47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who 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 which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
[PRAYER]
[CIT] In this passage Jesus plainly stated that He is the Bread of Life…
[INTER] …but what do you need to know about Jesus as the Bread of Life?
[TS] Well, there are two things I want you to know about Jesus as the Bread of Life, and then I have a question for you at the end.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
First, you need to know that the Bread of Life is what you need (v. 33).
First, you need to know that the Bread of Life is what you need (v. 33).
33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
[EXP] The opposite of life is death, and without Jesus we will die in our sins.
God breathed life into the first man, Adam, and in Adam, all men lived.
But Adam chose to rebel against God, the author of life, and in Adam, all men sinned.
The price for sin—the price for rebelling against the author of life—is death, eternal separation from God.
Just as Adam and Even were exiled from the happy presence of God after they sinned, so we will be excluded from the happy presence of God unless we repent and trust in Jesus, the Bread of Life, who came down from Heaven to give us eternal life.
Eternal life is what we need because all we have without it is eternal death.
[ILLUS] There’s a book for sale called I’m Dead. Now What? It sounds like a book about what might be waiting for us on the other side of death, but the subtitle clues us in, Important Information About My Belongings, Business Affairs, And Wishes. It’s a workbook meant to make you think about your death and your loved ones left behind. After all, they’ll be the ones to make all the arrangements according to your wishes.
But even more important than thinking about who and what you’re leaving behind when you die is thinking about who and what you’re going to when you die!
[APP] No matter what you believe, when you die, you step into eternity and meet God.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “…it is appointed for man to die once and after this comes judgment…”
How that judgment goes for you depends on what you’ve done with Jesus Christ.
If you’ve trusted in Jesus to save you from sin and death through His own death and resurrection, then you will experience eternal life.
If you’ve done anything else with Jesus—if you’ve rejected Him, ignored Him, forgot about Him; anything other than trusted in Him—then you will experience eternal torment in Hell.
God is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance, but God is just and will call every sin to account.
For those who trust in Jesus, their sins are counted as paid in full through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
For everyone else, they will spend forever paying for their sins in the fires of God’s holiness.
Jesus, the Bread of Life, is who you need for eternity.
[TS]…
Second, you need to know that the Bread of Life is what you want (v. 35).
Second, you need to know that the Bread of Life is what you want (v. 35).
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
[EXP] It’s obvious for anyone with ears to hear that Jesus isn’t talking about literal bread; He’s not offering magical bread that can satisfy physical hunger forever, but He is offering Himself as the spiritual bread for the soul that satisfies spiritual hunger forever.
Whether we know it or not, Jesus is who we are hungering for and our souls will not be at rest until they are at rest in Him.
I think if you look in your soul, you're hungering for purpose.
That hunger is only satisfied in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
I think if you look in your soul, you're hungering for joy.
That hunger is only satisfied in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
I think if you look in your soul, you're hungering for peace.
That hunger is only satisfied in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
I think if you look in your soul, you're hungering for wisdom.
That hunger is only satisfied in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
I think if you look in your soul, you're hungering for love.
That hunger is only satisfied in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
Now, to be sure, your sinful flesh convinces you that you’re hungering for other things, but these things, the good things—purpose, joy, peace, wisdom, love—those things are the greater craving because they are the cravings of your soul, and no matter how much you indulge the flesh, you will always be miserable until your soul finds it fulfillment in Jesus.
He is the bread of life.
Whoever believes in Him will never hunger or thirst.
Now, someone might say, “Well, I’ve trusted in Jesus; I’ve tasted and seen that He is good as the Bread of Life, but I don’t feel the purpose, the joy, the happiness, the love; what’s the deal with that?”
One possibility might be The Misery Gap.
I recently heard a brother in Christ refer to the distance between our profession of Christ and obedience to Christ as ‘The Misery Gap.’
As a genuine Christian, when there is only the smallest gap between what we profess and how we behave, we’re not that miserable; we tend to be pretty happy as Christians when The Misery Gap is small or, better yet, non-existent.
However, when there is a greater distance between what we profess and how we behave, then we tend to be pretty miserable.
Don’t you think that some of us who have really trusted Jesus aren’t feeling the purpose, the joy, the love, because we’re trying to live in The Misery Gap?
Don’t you think that what we need to do is erase the gap between what we profess about Jesus and how we behave?
Another possibility is that although you came to Jesus as the Bread of Life, you’ve neglected to have Him as your daily bread.
Just as you eat everyday to stay strong physically, you need Jesus everyday in order to remain strong spiritually.
When you don’t make the Bread of Life your daily bread, you get spiritually weak really quickly.
Don’t you think that if you made daily prayer in the name of Jesus and daily time in the word of Jesus your habit that the Bread of Life would make you spiritually strong?
[ILLUS] Think back to the rich young ruler. You remember him, he came to Jesus asking how to get eternal life, and Jesus said, “Sell everything, and come follow Me.”
Do you remember how the rich young ruler responded? Do you remember how he walked away?
22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
That’s interesting, isn’t it?
Why was he saddened?
Why was he grieving?
He still had all his property, so what’s the problem?
He walked away sad and grieving because he walked away without the one thing his soul hungered for—Jesus, the Bread of Life!
[APP] Don’t you see that that idol in your life that keeps you from following Jesus wholeheartedly is keeping you from the very thing that your soul wants most!?
Don’t you see that whatever sin keeps you in The Misery Gap is keeping you from enjoying fullness of joy in Jesus Christ!?
Don’t you see that by not partaking of the Bread of Life as your daily bread you’re robbing yourself of daily blessings?
Jesus is everything you need!
And Jesus is everything you want!
But you must believe!
[TS] That brings us to the question, and here it is…
Do you believe? (vv. 34-36).
Do you believe? (vv. 34-36).
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
[EXP] C. S. Lewis once said…
“Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Even after everything Jesus has said; even after offering them Himself as the Bread of Life, these people would have been pleased with just another loaf of bread.
Everyone who comes to Him and believes will never hunger or thirst again, but those who refuse to believe Him, they will always hunger and thirst.
They had seen Him and did not believe.
You have seen Him through the pages of God’s Word.
Do you believe?
They were unbelievers who were not given to Jesus by the Father, but all those who come to Him and believe will be kept by Him, and He will not cast them out (v. 37).
What are you? Will you be kept or cast out?
Do you believe?
They should’ve believed that Jesus had been sent by the Father because Jesus had only been doing the Father’s will (v. 38). Demons disobey and dishonor God, but as you can see for yourself in the pages of the Bible, Jesus only ever perfectly obeyed God.
That being so, shouldn’t you believe that Jesus has been sent by the Father?
Do you believe?
The will of the Father is that not one of those given to Jesus by the Father will be lost on the last day (v. 39). For the will of the Father is that everyone who looks on Jesus, the Son, and believes… well, they have partaken of the bread of life leading to eternal life, and Jesus will raise them up on the last day (v. 40).
Is that you? Have your partaken of Jesus as the Bread of Life?
Do you believe?
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
The most expensive bread in the world, at least as of a few years ago, was Gold Leaf Bread made in Andalusia, Spain.
It’s made in a family-owned bakery called the Pan Pina Bakery, which is run by owner and baker, Juan Manuel Moreno.
His gold leaf bread is made from specialty flour, salt extracted by hand from caves, roasted seeds, hard water from the local area, and edible gold and silver.
Depending on how you want your Gold Leaf Bread made, a single average-sized loaf can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Sheiks and celebrities, billionaires and royalty have partaken of Gold Leaf Bread, but they all have the same experience after eating it… they all get hungry again.
Feed your stomach the most expensive, delectable bread you can find, and your soul will still hunger for Jesus.
But once you really believe on Him as the Bread of Life, you’ll live forever and your soul will never be hungry again.
Do you believe?