I Am The Bread Of Life Series

I Am, the Bread of Life

Date: March 25, 2012

Scripture: John 6:30-35, 47-51

Introduction

Have you ever been hungry-I mean REALLY hungry?

I remember being/hospital/years ago/Part/treatment involved my not being allowed to eat or drink for several days with my only sustenance coming from IV fluids and an occasional ice chip.

Well, as the days dragged by I became VERY hungry....

• I was confined to bed so there was nothing to take my mind off my intense desire to eat-other than to watch TV...

• And of course you know that the vast majority of TV commercials have to do with food.

• Sometimes I was so ravenous I would close my eyes and imagine chewing a piece of thick juicy steak

• Or a big hunk of meat lovers Pizza or a slice of hot apple pie smothered in vanilla ice cream.

Well if you've ever been that hungry you know how tough it can be to stomach that kind of discomfort.

• Hunger is a VERY powerful desire.

• It's one of our bodies strongest inner drives

• Because our minds are programmed to know that food is essential to life.

The desire for food is strong enough to deceive us and warp our perceptions.

This is why we say our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, because if we are hungry enough we think we can consume more than we actually can.

• How many times have you said, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!

• Hunger has also been known to make people DO things they normally wouldn't DO

• and SEE things that aren't actually there

• And even BELIEVE things that aren't true.

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Well, this morning/continue/study of Jesus' I Am... sayings

• we read/incident/Jesus’ earthly ministry that deals with hungry people

• People whose hunger in fact had deluded them into buying into some of the world's biggest misconceptions.

Now to fully understand how this happened we need to of course understand the setting.

Prior to this morning's text Jesus had just performed His most popular miracle-appearing in all four gospels.

• It began when thousands of people followed Him to a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

• John says there were 5,000 people/this was only the head count of the men present

• If you included the women/children who were no doubt present,

• There were probably more like 15,000 people who crowded together on that hillside.

Well about mid afternoon Jesus turned to His disciples and compassionately pointed out the need to feed this huge multitude.

• In response Andrew brought a little boy to Jesus who was willing to share his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish.

As you know, Jesus then miraculously used this meal, intended to fill the belly of a small boy, to stuff the stomachs of 15,000 people and there were even 12 baskets of left-overs!

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But you know, when you think of it, there were actually TWO miracles that afternoon:

• ONE that Jesus fed fifteen thousand people with this small amount of food

• The other that this little boy had not already eaten his lunch by mid afternoon!

Well, the day after all this happened some of those who had eaten the bread and fish provided by Jesus searched for Him all over the countryside on both sides of the Sea of Galilee.

The conversation in today's text occurred when they finally found Jesus in Capernaum.

Take your Bibles and turn to John 6

Sermon

Now, if we look at this text very closely together I think we will see three misconceptions that these hungry people embraced.

1. First off, they forgot that God is the source of all that is good in life....

The people were so impressed with the free meal they got, they decided to follow Jesus to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

• They followed Jesus not because He performed a miracle which showed Him to be someone special

• But because He seemed to be a meal ticket to the easy life.

• Jesus Himself acknowledges this:

(Jn 6:26) "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill."

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• When they found Jesus and asked for another free meal,

They bragged that Moses had given the Hebrew people bread from heaven every day when they wandered in the wilderness.

And Jesus corrected them saying that the source of that bread was God...not Moses.

These hungry Hebrews had forgotten the foundational truth

• And that is everything we have is traceable back to God!

• God is the source of everything...

• How many times have you forgotten so easily….