I Am The Bread Of Life Series

I Am the Bread of Life

(John 6:35-51)

1. Most writers know not to use mixed metaphors. Here are some examples:

1. She was a couch potato in the gravy boat of life, flopping dejectedly on the sofa.

2. All at once he was alone in this noisy hive with no place to roost.

3. The little boat gently drifted across the pond the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

2. John’s Gospel arranged around 7sign miracles, 7 “I Am” statements, & 7 major personal encounters. These statements are metaphors. E.W. Bullinger explains difference between similes and metaphors:“…while the simile gently states that one thing is like or resembles another, the metaphor boldly and warmly declares that one thing IS the other…While the simile says ‘All flesh is AS grass’ (I Pet. 1:24), the metaphor carries the figure across at once and says ‘All flesh IS grass’ (Isa. Xl.6)…” (from Figures of Speech Used in the Bible by E. W. Bullinger, p. 735).

3. The seven I Am statements are metaphors. When He says, “I am the door,” for example, He means, “I Am like a door in that I open the way to God.” He doesn’t mean He has turned into a door with hinges and a door knob. The metaphors represent something about Christ.

4. I AM (Exodus 3:1-20); God’s Name, Yahweh. When Jesus applies the title “I Am” to himself, he claims to be God (John 8:58-59).

“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35-51)

“I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

“I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7-9)

“I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)

“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11-14)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

“I am the true vine.” (John 15:1- 5)

5. Today we will look at the first I Am, I Am the Bread of Life. Bread is used repeatedly in Scripture as representative of the necessities of life, that which we need to live and thrive. But just as we need food to sustain our bodies, so we need Jesus Christ, the bread Who came down from heaven, to sustain our souls.

6. Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray for our physical bread (needs). But it also focuses on God’s Kingdom and our spiritual relationship to Him Not “either/or,” but “both/and.”

Main Idea: When we focus only upon temporal physical and superficial longings – represented by physical bread – we neglect our eternal deep spiritual needs, represented by spiritual bread, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

I. What PRECEDED the “I Am the Bread of Life” Affirmation (John 6:1-34)?

A. Jesus MULTIPLIED loaves and fish to feed 5,000 (1-13).

B. The crowd ATTEMPTED to force Jesus to become KING (14-15).

C. Jesus walks on WATER and the crowd meets Him the next day (16-24).

D. Jesus condemned these enthusiasts: they were only concerned about the PHYSICAL (25-29).

1. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness to put physical bread above God’s will.

2. These people fell into that same temptation.

Deuteronomy 8:3, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

3. Many Christians are more concerned about their pocket books than their Bible book.

4. We have to address the concerns of this life, but we need to remember that those legitimated concerns can become dangerous weeds that can choke the Word.

5. The war to prioritize the spiritual is one battle after another; it doesn’t end.

E. The people ask for a SIGN, seemingly MANNA from heaven (30-34).

1. People confuse manna and matzoh.

2. Manna was a grain about the size of coriander seeds, like a dry chick pea perhaps.

3. During the 40 years the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, God would sustain them with this grain that would fall from the sky. Manna means, “What is it?”

4. This is recorded for us in Exodus 16.

II. Jesus As “Bread of Life” SUSTAINS Our Souls (35-51).

The Statements form a chiasm, the focus (center) is verse 42.

A. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

B. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

C. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."