Bred For Bread Series

1. I’ve been told that there’s a health-food restaurant out in the northeast with a billboard that says, “Eat here and live a long life!” Not wanting to be outdone, the barbeque place next-door put up a sign that reads: “Eat here and die happy!”

2. Food is important to us – some more than others

a. Notice how we eat our favorite food for a meal and get hungry a few minutes later?

b. A Health indicator is hunger

3. Ravi Zacharias – “With all of our ingesting and consumptions, our hungers are still many and our fulfillments are few.”

a. Jesus came to fix that

b. He provides life and satisfaction – John 6.32-35

32 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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.

I. Bread Sustains Life

A. A Demanding Process

1. Prepare the soil; plant the seed; tend the plants

2. Harvest—Using sickles; bundle the sheaves; thresh; winnow; Grind; Flour – Dough; knead; bake; serve

‘If God intended man to live on bread, why didn’t he create a bread tree?’ And the answer, in effect, is that God could have created a tree that produced crusty loaves of bread, but he prefers to offer us a grain and invite us to buy a field and plant the seed. He prefers that we till the soil while he sends the rain. He prefers that we harvest the crop while he sends sunshine. He prefers that we grind the crop and knead it and bake it while he gives us air in our lungs and strength in our arms. Why? Because he would rather that we become partners with him in creation.

B. A Decisive Picture – of Yeshua (Jesus)

1. A Comparison to Moses and Manna – John 6.28-34

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 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.’” 32 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

a. Daily Gathering of Manna – Exodus 16.4, 15;

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.

b. God did not forget their needs for the journey – nor ours

2. Yeshua (Jesus) is Greater

a. A Prophet like Moses – Deuteronomy 18.15-16

15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’

b. Yeshua (Jesus) enacted the history of Israel – wilderness temptations; call from Egypt; Jordan; Moses

c. Yeshua’s birthplace – Bethlehem – “House of Bread” (Micah 5.2; Matthew 2.1ff)

1) Boaz and Ruth – David; Yeshua )Jesus)

2) From the House of Bread he came to be the Bread of Life

II. God is the Source of Life

A. Constant Provisions

1. Manna in the wilderness

2. Bread for the 5 K

3. ALL of our NEEDS – Philippians 4.19

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.