Jesus is the Bread of Life
Who is Jesus? • Sermon • Submitted
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· 19 viewsChrist is the Greater Manna who truly satisfies our Spiritual Hunger.
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Introduction:
This past week at Camp I introduced a new phrase, that we (should) want to get into the Word of God, so that the Word can get into us. So, this morning let’s get into the Word in so the Word can get into us.
One of the most natural things we do is eat. We need to eat and drink because our bodies need energy and hydration to perform day to day task. However, did you know that the average person eats and drinks a total of 32,098 hours their entire life time? Break that down and we are looking at over three years of our lives spent eating and drinking! That’s insane if you think about it, but it’s a only natural because even though we eat we will get hungry again. Food can only satisfy us for a short time which is why we find ourselves spending this much time eating. In a similar manner, we have a spiritual hunger that we often fill with things that will never truly satisfy us.
In a similar manner, we have a spiritual hunger
We have this tendency as a fallen humanity to turn to temporary or wordly outlets to nourish us spiritually. The issue with this is that the things of this world can never satisfy us but actually leave us hungrier than when we began. We turn to:
We turn to:
Relationships
Possessions
Future Goals
and many other avenues to fill this void we have in our live, but we will never be satisfied. This is because we cannot fill a God sized hunger in our souls with anything other than God. In fact, Jesus himself attested to this in the passage we are about to read and goes a step further and gives himself the title “The Bread of Life” that can truly satisfy us. In this passage we are going to make four observations about this narrative and Christ’s first “I am” statement in order to understand how Jesus being the bread of life is good news for us today.
Context:
Before we dive into the meat of the passage we have to do a little background work which we see in :
On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
Jesus has performed the miracles of feeding the five thousand in 6:1-15, has walked on water in front of his disciples, and now the crowds (who didn’t see the walk on water miracle) go across the sea to find him. As we will see in later verses, they are only coming to get what Jesus can give them, not Jesus himself. Now that we are caught up the stage is set for Jesus to deliver the first “I am” statement. The first observation I want to make concerning this passage is that…
Observation 1: God alone provides. (v.25-34)
Observation 1: God alone provides. (v.25-34)
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 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. 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.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 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. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Verse 25
This passage begins with the crowds going to Jesus and asking him when did he cross the sea. They even ask this in what seems to be an honorific way by calling him “Rabbi” but their true intentions aren’t motivated by worship, but by hunger as Jesus points out in the following verse.
Verse 26
Jesus counteracts their
Jesus counters their question by calling them out for their false spirituality if you will. They aren’t following him because they understood the signs Jesus performed, which was to point to his identity as the Messiah, but because they wanted to be fed once again. They weren’t pursuing Jesus because of who he is, but because of what he could do. This should speak to us today in our current culture because we often have people who claim to be believers but in all reality they don’t want a relationship with Jesus, they just want his benefits. This shows us that in 2,000 years people haven’t changed.
Verses 27-29
In verse 26 Jesus calls their spiritual bluff, but here in verse 27 he rebukes them for their materialistic view of the Kingdom of God. He tells them to not work for perishable food, but for eternal food which is only given through the Son of God (Jesus). What we see later in the passage is that Jesus not only gives this eternal food, but he himself is the eternal food. We must focus not on the things that will pass away, but on the eternal things that matter. It was Jonathan Edwards who said, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyelids.” This should be our prayer as well, that we will focus not on the world, but on the eternal.
With this in mind the crowd ask him how they are to do the work of God (v.28) to which Jesus says the only thing they must do is believe in the one whom the Father has sent, which is himself. This points to the truth that only God provides eternal satisfaction in Christ alone. We cannot find it outside of him, but can only find it in him. This is alluded to in which states:
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
In Christ alone there is life and satisfaction for our hungry souls. However, as the story progresses we see that the crowd still doesn’t fully get it as seen in verses 30-31.
Verses 30-34
Jesus has literally just explained how to receive eternal satisfaction, but the crowd is still blinded to the truth. They ask him “What sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?” even though Jesus literally just fed them the day before with five loaves of bread and two fish. Can we all just agree that this is like next level stupid? They went to Jesus for another sign, after he did the miracle of feeding all 5,000+ of them, Jesus tells them that to receive the eternal food they must believe in him since he has been sent by the Father, and now they ask him what sign he does to prove they should believe in him. This is spiritual blindness to the max right here. I’m not going to lie to you I found myself getting frustrated with the crowd while preparing this but then I realized something. I realized that all of us outside of Christ are just as spiritually blind. We call out for God to prove himself to us or to prove his love for us and we ignore the Christ he sent to prove this to us.
Their spiritual blindness led to them comparing Jesus to Moses and comparing his miracle to his demanding that he do something greater. To this Jesus corrects them and explains that Moses didn’t provide this miracle, but God did. Moses doesn’t provide, but only God alone provides which should in turn be enlightening to us. No matter what kind of fulfillment we seek in the world we won’t find it because God alone provides what we need. While the crowds mocked him by saying, “Sir give us this bread always” Jesus responds with his first “I am” statement which leads us to our second observation which is…
Observation 2: Christ alone saves. (v.35-40)
Observation 2: Christ alone saves. (v.35-40)
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. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 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. 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.”
Verse 35
Here in verse 35 Jesus finally states clearly what the crowd was not getting which is that he is the Bread of Life. Whomever comes to Jesus will not hunger because they will be saved and satisfied. This is echoed in :
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Anyone who comes to Christ will partake in the Bread of Life and be saved. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a need for continued dependance upon Christ for as Christians we must daily desire Christ more and more and our sin less. Believers have a tendency to turn back to the world to satisfy, but only Christ can satisfy so we must focus our eyes and desires upon him and not on the world which cannot satisfy. This is because Christ alone saves those who believe in him.
Verses 36-40
Jesus then directs his attention to the crowd to explain to them that while they have seen him, they have not believed in who his miracles portray him to be. He rebukes their consistent unbelief. However, Jesus follows this up by stating that those who have been given to Christ will not reject him, but will come to him in saving faith. This means that whomever comes to Christ will not be rejected for they are loved by the Father and given to Christ. This provides believers will security as it shows that even if we find ourselves turning to the world as believers, we will not be cast out of Christ.
We have faith in this because Christ alone saves us and the Father draws us by the power of the Spirit to repent and believe. Because God is sovereign in this area we can be assured that he will not lose what is his and we will not and cannot lose our salvation. Verse 40 also provides us with this assurance because Christ will raise us up on the Last Day because we are saved and secured in Christ alone.
The reason for this is because Christ is the Bread of Life. This points us to our third observation of the text which states…
Observation 3: Christ alone is the Greater Manna. (v.41-51)
Observation 3: Christ alone is the Greater Manna. (v.41-51)
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 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’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 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— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.”
This paragraph shows us that the Jewish leaders still did not accept Christ as the Bread that comes from Heaven. They complained that Jesus can’t possibly be this true bread because after all isn’t he the son of a mere carpenter? Jesus responds to them by asserting that he is the Bread of Life because he is the Greater Manna.
In the book of Exodus we read the story of God providing for the Israelites hunger by having Manna come to them that they were to gather. How is Christ the greater Manna? Because those in Exodus would eat the Manna God gave to them, but they still eventually died. The Greater Manna (Jesus) will allow those who partake in him to live forever. This doesn’t mean we won’t die physically, but means even if our bodies pass before Christ returns we will live forever with him Spiritual and then we will be reunited with our Physical bodies at the return of Christ and live with him forever. This is why Paul encourages Christian in :
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Our hope or Blessed Assurance is that we do not go into the ground and thats it, but that we will be reunited with Loved ones that have gone before us and we will be with our Christ, the Bread of Life, for all eternity. While the manna sustained Israel physically from day to day, Christ satisfies us for all eternity because he is the greater manna because he is the Bread of Life. Because Christ is the Bread of Life this leads us to our last observation which is that…
Observation 4: Christ alone satisfies our Hunger. (v.52-59)
Observation 4: Christ alone satisfies our Hunger. (v.52-59)
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 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. 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.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
As we begin to conclude I want to leave with this last passage in mind. The Jews still were spiritually blind to what Christ was telling them. Jesus then tells them arguably one of the most “disturbing” things in the Gospels. He tells them that in order to have eternal life one must eat his flesh and drink his blood.... Face value it seems as though Jesus is telling people to be cannibals in order to go to heaven, but that isn’t what he is saying. The symbolism he is using here actually points to the Lord’s Supper which he institutes in :
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
To eat and to drink here is to remember the sacrifice that Christ made to purchase salvation. It cost him his life on the cross to justify (make us right) before a Holy God. We have eternal life through his death and also his resurrection. For his death forgives sin and his resurrection makes us alive with him as states.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Christ only satisfied the wrath of God we deserved and satisfied the price for sin by being our atoning sacrifice on the cross (; ). Because he is the only one who satisfied the price for sin, he is the only one who can satisfy us.
As we will see through the rest of John’s Gospel, Christ alone gives us purpose and eternal life because he is the only one who satisfies the hunger in our souls. Let us not turn to the world to do what only Christ has done for us. Let us not seek what will never satisfy, but cling to the Bread of Life.
Conclusion:
This morning you have a simple choice to make, will you continue to be left empty by the world or will you turn to the only one who can fulfill you? If you are a believer then continue to desire Christ more and your sin less. If you are an unbeliever then turn to Christ who can save you soul. Let’s Pray.