Can You Smell The Bread?

Can you smell the bread?

John 6:1-9, 22-35 (have bread baking in a bread machine while speaking)

He reproves them for seeking carnal food, and directs them to spiritual food v. 26, 27, showing them how they must labour for spiritual food v. 28, 29, and what that spiritual food is v. 30–59

Christ showed himself pleased with their attendance, and concerned for their welfare

The souls of the poor are precious to Christ, and should be so to us, as those of the rich

Can he furnish a table in the wilderness?

They were barley loaves. Canaan was a land of wheat Deu. 8:8; its inhabitants were commonly fed with the finest wheat Ps. 81:16, the kidneys of wheat Deu. 32:14; yet Christ and his disciples were glad of barley-bread

Let us despise the provision of the poor, nor look upon it with contempt, remembering how Christ was provided for

There were but five loaves, and those so small that one little lad carried them all; and we find 2 Ki. 4:42, 43 that twenty barley-loaves, would not feed a hundred men without a miracle

There were but two fishes, and those small ones, so small that one of them was but a morsel

People get so accustomed to the fake that they cannot appreciate the genuine

Illustration: Bought up on real butter we know the taste; kids spit it out because man made substitutes have become the taste for this generation

Men have filled their hearts with the fluff and rotted wood of man made religion, be it scientific, pagan or even "Christian"

The things of the world are food that perishes

Worldly wealth, honour, and pleasure, are their food

A carnal heart

They feel good about what they have so why change?

What many of them need is to see genuine Christianity in action

With so many Christians AWOL from church and service or attending but pretending they don’t have any thrill and excitement to change what they have

We need to create a desire and hunger in people for the true Bread of Life

The world is starving to death on junk food

Will you allow Jesus Christ to feed them through you and fill their void?

Many followed Christ for the loaves, and not for love

They wanted to make him king, so that under his reign, they might be protected by his compassion for the people, and his ability to multiply the loaves

They were thinking of themselves, and securing their own physical needs

They wanted Jesus to continue to perform his miracles, so that their life would be physically blessed

If we really want to understand this sixth chapter of John, which uplifts Jesus as the Bread of Life, we cannot limit our thoughts by thinking in purely physical terms

We have to begin to see this miraculous event as a sign that points us in another direction, to consider a different meaning

As we read John’s Gospel, it becomes clear, that the author wants us To move beyond the physical aspect of the miracle, beyond our Lord’s ability to physically feed the hungry, to physically multiply loaves of bread, to inspire us to encounter Jesus AS the “Bread of Life.”

John wants us to recognize that Jesus is able to feed us with heavenly food, food that nourishes us in our relationship with God

This not about us, and our physical needs, as much as it is about Jesus – who he truly is, and his ability to feed us in faith

Jesus was speaking in terms of feeding us and nourishing us in our relationship with God.

The fragments filled twelve baskets, one for each disciple

God rewards his servants

He was not saying, that if you believe in me and worship me on a regular basis, you will never experience physical hunger

He was not saying that we don’t worry about our physical needs any longer

He was saying that those who come to him, and believe in him, will be satisfied in their hunger to know God, and to experience his forgiving grace

Jesus is usually sought after for something else and not for his own sake

A personal need: healing, financial, hurt etc

Taste and see that the Lord is good

The Torah and the word of the prophets is the bread of life – but in his teachings, Jesus applies this image to himself

He was challenging the people to look beyond what they could perceive with their eyes or sense with their stomachs

It was as if Jesus was saying, “We do not live by bread alone, but by the word of God” – the same answer he gave to the tempter in the wilderness

He was challenging the people to come to see that in him, they could truly behold and be fed, not with physical bread, but with the word of God, which would end the famine for God’s Word that Amos predicted