The Bread of Life
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So - we’re now going to jump back into our trek through the gospel of John...
I do think it would be wise if we revisited a bit, where we’ve been.
The last time we were in this book, we were in chapter 6...
…and we had read through this text...
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 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’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
45 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—
46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever 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 that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 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.”
So if we remember, Jesus is really saying some HARD things to mankind here...
He’s saying things - speaking about SPIRITUAL things…YET - talking about bread and flesh.
And not only that - but what we focused on 5 weeks ago IN THIS PASSAGE - was the UNBELIEF of mankind.
In how:
UNBELIEF:
It’s Wisdom Relies on Human Reasoning
Rebels Against Truth
Cannot Overcome Itself
Believes Life is Found in the Physical
And so Jesus - in this PASSAGE attacks UNBELIEF...
SAYING - Life (Spiritual LIFE - is found in HIM…by faith).
NOW - that sort of message - would NOT have been popular for those who DID ELEVATE the physical...
AKA - the Jews...
And we know the Jews didn’t like this message based on how they respond...
So let’s see how they respond
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 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.
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
57 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.
58 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.”
59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
If you remember back to our sermon about Unbelief…one of our points from that sermon was this:
UNBELIEF: Believes Life is Found in the Physical
And this point came from this text...
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, 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 from heaven to eat.’ ”
Do you remember this exchange?
Here we have Jews who were a part of the 5000 who were fed by Jesus…miraculously...
And they’re asking Jesus - What sign do you perform so that we’ll believe…??
“our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness”
And so they mention the manna from back in the OT wondering...
As IF - BECAUSE they ate the manna, they were special.
And Jesus ends up - putting them in their place - HELPING them to reorient their thinking...
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
So Jesus is SETTING this up now - to CONTRAST the manna - with HIMSELF as - the Bread of LIFE...
Multiple times up until our text today - Jesus has DECLARED Himself to be - THE BREAD OF LIFE...
a CLEAR contrast to the manna in the wilderness
And now TODAY - Jesus doubles down on His claim!! - And kicks it up a notch!
And what we end up seeing today is this:
SLIDE: Eternal Life: Exclusively Found in Jesus Christ
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
What did Jesus say?
53 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.
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
There is something that is PERVASIVE in our society today...
More than ever before...
And it’s something that we all have to deal with...
It’s something that is GROWING day by day...
Something that is TAKING over human thought...
And it’s something that ATTACKS REALITY and at the same time - Creates its own...
What is it?
RELATIVISM
RELATIVISM says:
You can’t IMPLY gender
Gender is whatever you want it to be
What’s right for you may not be right for me
We see this EVERYWHERE…and it’s destroying the culture
See Relativism would look at this verse and say - You can’t say that!
That can be true for you, but it’s not true for me!
And what Relativism hates about these verses is the - Exclusivity they claim!
These verses say - UNLESS you eat the flesh of the Son of Man…UNLESS you drink His blood...
…you have NO life in you
53 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.
UNLESS this is true about you - you have NO LIFE in you!!
NOW - have you ever went to a funeral for a loved one...
And you look at them in the casket…and you’re able to JUDGE that they are in fact - WITHOUT life…?
NOW - you LOVE this person in the casket...
WHAT would it take - if you saw your OTHER - still living RELATIVE - come in, and you knew that this STILL living relative…actually had the power to RESTORE life to your dead relative?
What would happen if you saw them WALK IN....look at the casket and then WALK OUT and leave?
Would someone have to CONVINCE you to run after them and tell them to get back in there…to restore life to them?
HOW would you feel if they REFUSED to restore life to your loved one?
How would you feel?
Baffled?
Angry?
Enraged?
OK - now - Jesus says - UNLESS YOU eat my flesh and drink my blood - you have NO LIFE!
WHICH means - if you EAT Jesus’ flesh and DRINK His blood - you WILL have eternal life!
So what does it mean to EAT the flesh of Jesus and DRINK His blood?
35 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.
OK - so here we have HUNGER and THIRST being discussed!
Jesus says - UNLESS you EAT MY FLESH - you have no life in you!!
Well - in v35 here - we see that SATISFYING our Spiritual hunger = equates to = COMING TO JESUS!
“Come to me and you shall NOT hunger!”
So - the coming to Jesus SATISFIES the hunger!
What about DRINKING the blood of Jesus!?
Whoever BELIEVES in me shall never thirst!!
SO - Belief in Jesus - Satisfies the thirst!!
So when Jesus says in v53...
53 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.
When Christ says - Unless you EAT my flesh and drink my blood, you have NO LIFE in you...
He’s saying...
UNLESS you come to Me and Believe in Me - you have NO LIFE in you...
LIFE is EXCLUSIVELY found in Jesus Christ!!
More directly - Eternal Life is EXCLUSIVELY found in - Faith/Belief/Trust in Jesus Christ
And the reason this is true is because ETERNAL LIFE itself - IS Jesus Christ!!
Jesus is THE LIFE!
He has ETERNALLY existed!
Remember John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
in John 1:1
- there is NO reference to specific point in the past...
It’s just - In the beginning - and the next word is HUGE - WAS…the Word.
It doesn’t say - In the beginning - the Word CAME into being...
It doesn’t say - In the beginning - BEGAN the Word...
NO - in the beginning WAS - the Word...
In the beginning - THERE - was the Word...
This is saying that the WORD - Jesus Christ - was NOT created!
He had NO BEGINNING! from Everlasting… is Jesus Christ!
And SO - is there ANYTHING more REAL than Jesus Christ?
See - everything around us CONFUSES us!
We THINK the BREAD on our PLATE is ULTIMATE REALITY!!
We can HOLD IT...
We can TASTE IT...
Nothing MORE REAL than THAT!! Right?
SLIDE: Jesus Christ: True Food and True Drink
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Remember our 1st point...
Eternal Life: Is Exclusively found - in Jesus Christ!
And Jesus Christ = IS
True Food and True Drink
Every meal we sit down to - is screaming back at us - DO YOU KNOW JESUS??
I can’t SUSTAIN YOU!
I can’t SATISFY YOU...
BUT JESUS can?
HE’S TRUE FOOD - He’s TRUE DRINK!!
Have you TASTED Jesus?
Our experience of the world cries out to us: Don’t rely [put your hope] on that which cannot sustain you!
RELY on - put your HOPE in that which CAN sustain you…the ONLY thing that CAN sustain you...
Jesus Christ!
Every food on this planet OBEYS Jesus Christ is that it continues to FAIL to sustain us!
Let’s skip to v58
58 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 says - FEED ON JESUS!!
And guess what?
The MOST COMMON location for the Table where we DINE on Jesus - is in the center of a STORM!
This is the most common location of the TABLE...
It’s like Jesus calls us and says - HEY, I made a reservation for 2...
…and you’re invited!!
Meet me tomorrow:
at the corner of Pearl and Route 82 - you’re going to be in an accident
at 4:15 - You’re going to get a call that you have stage 4
7:00 in the morning - You’re going to get a call that your sibling passed away
That’s WHERE WE WILL DINE TOGETHER!
Eternal Life flows to everyone who FEEDS ON JESUS...
who...
Pursues
Hears
and Embraces
The Spiritual Words of Jesus Christ!
So how does this affect us today??
*You all woke up yesterday morning…and you all went to bed last night.
*Most often - we wake up - Hungry!
Has anyone ever waken up in the morning hungry, and gone to bed FULL…without having eaten anything that day?
Has anyone ever been STARVING - and then felt STUFFED - without doing anything?
When you get hungry, do you just go STAND in your kitchen until your hunger goes away?
NO - what do we do?
We MAKE ourselves some food!!
If we’re going to FEED on Jesus:
We’re not just gonna go stand in church on Sundays and then - - wait till the NEXT Sunday...
Listen to how Paul describes the Christian life...
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
God’s Grace - WORKS - for those who are His!
Which takes us to our last point for today...
SLIDE: Eternal Life: Transferred Through Faith
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
Back to v57
57 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 past week, I was taking Tia to her soccer game, and on the way, she asked me about the time that my car needed to get jumped.
Her question was: How did your car’s life come back because of mommy’s car?
She remembered that my car had died…and needed to “come back to life”…BUT she knew that SOMEHOW - my car needed mommy’s car.
My car was completely dead - and so it needed LIFE -
It needed JUMPED - and so what do you do?
- You get the jumper cables, and the cables do what?
They transfer LIFE from one car to another!
If Rachel’s car had been dead - would it have helped my car?
NO - my car needed a car that had - LIFE (power)
That LIFE was transferred through those cables...
And so my car’s LIFE was due to the LIFE of Rachel’s car!
ETERNAL LIFE - is completely dependent on Jesus Christ!
FAITH would be equated to the JUMPER CABLES...
Our FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST transfers Christ’s Eternal Life....to us!
Faith is the conduit by which Eternal Life transfers to - US!
*Windmill
And so this i think SHOULD cause us to maybe RETHINK what Eternal Life is...
In that it literally - completely RESTS on Jesus Christ...
Using the WINDMILL analogy, Jesus Christ is the WIND...
And if 2 Billion Years from now - if we’re IN HEAVEN - our FAITH at that time (our TURNING of the windmill) WILL STILL DEPEND ON WHAT?
the WIND…Jesus Christ!!
It’s ALL due Christ!
WHICH AGAIN - points to our 1st point again from today...
- The absolute EXCLUSIVITY of Jesus Christ - the ONLY way, the ONLY truth…the ONLY LIFE!!
Summary:
Eternal Life: Exclusively Found in Jesus
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
Jesus Christ: True Food and True Drink
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Eternal Life: Transferred Through Faith
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Acts 4:12 – And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Rom. 10:9 – Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2 Cor. 4:4 – In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
John 3:36 – Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Acts 10:43 – To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
1 Tim. 2:5 – For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Rom. 3:22 – The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
And then we’ll close with this:
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life IS TO KNOW Jesus Christ - because through that knowing, we are connected to LIFE ITSELF.
Let’s Pray
Have a Great Week
Have a Great Week