I Am The Bread Of Life Series

I am the Bread of Life

John 6:1-66

Focus John 6:35-40

Intro:

Exodus 3:13-14 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? (14) And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

· This explains his name Jehovah, and signifies, 1. That he is self-existent: he has his being of himself. 2. That he is eternal and unchangeable, and always the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. 3. That he is incomprehensible; we cannot by searching find him out: this name checks all bold and curious inquiries concerning God. 4. That he is faithful and true to all his promises, unchangeable in his word as well as in his nature; let Israel know this, I AM hath sent me unto you. I am, and there is none else besides me.

John in his book, records 7 times that Jesus said “I Am…”

· I am the Bread of Life

· I am the Light of the World

· I am the Door

· I am the Good Shepherd

· I am the Resurrection and Life

· I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

· I am the Vine

Over the next several weeks we are going to examine each of these statements that Jesus made, starting today with The Bread of Life.

I) The Setting

a) They are in the city of Capernaum (vs. 59), which was a home city to Jesus’ early ministry. Jesus did many works in that city, however, as we shall see today, they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.

· Matthew 11:23-24 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (24) But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.

· Strong statements of things to come.

b) The day before, Jesus had fed a multitude of more than 5000 people.

· Vs 5 This was a testing of the disciples, in particular Philip

· Vs 7 Philip thought that it would take a great deal of money to feed this crowd, and the others wanted Jesus to send them to the near by city for each to take care of their own needs.

1. Matthew 14:15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.

· Vs 8-9 We have here again Andrew bring someone to Jesus, even if Andrew did not think that Jesus would be able to do anything for all of the people, even though this one he was bringing had offered all he had to Jesus.

· Vs 10-13 Jesus took what was given, gave thanks, and then disbursed to the disciples to give to the people to eat, and everyone was filled and they collect up twelve baskets of bread which was left over.

· Vs 14-15 These people who had eaten, knew that this was a miracle, and that a prophet was in their mist, they were even going to try to take Jesus by force, and made him their king. It is to these people, on the next day (vs 22 – 25), that Jesus is having this conversation concerning his claim. Remember this as we will again look at these people and their reactions to Jesus later.

II) The Statements

a) These statements start off with “Verily, verily”

· These words could also have been translated as “Truly, truly” or “Surely, surely”

· Any time you see word like this repeated, that means what is being said is of great importance

1) Vs. 26 Jesus knew these people’s heart. He knows your heart. You can wear masks down here to cover up your true intentions, but don’t ever think that you will be able to hide them from Jesus. These people didn’t want Jesus because of the miracles or the healings, they wanted Jesus because of the physical bread they received. They are many today who claim to be Christians, who really don’t want what Christ has to offer, they are in it for what they can have here in the now and physical.

2) Vs. 32 From the way Jesus answered their question, these people referred to Moses (another prophet) as giving them bread. It amazes me at how quick we sometimes are at blaming God for the bad, but giving man the credit for the good. These people looked at Moses for being the one who got them bread, and not that God had provided. Even with what had happened the day before, they were still thinking Jesus should give them more bread today, not because of God, just because he had done it before.