Our Daily Bread

OUR DAILY BREAD

John 6:30-35

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Once a month it is traditional for a Baptist church to have communion. We break the bread and partake of the wine so that we might always remember the Lord’s death until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:26). Before I partake in communion I ask God to search my heart and reveal any sin contained therein so that I might confess it and have Him lead me in the way everlasting (Psalms 139:23). Communion is not just a time for me to reflect upon my own life but also to think about the lives of those God has entrusted to me as the shepherd of the church. I can’t help but reflect upon the words of A. W. Tozer who said, “it is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Fathers table.” How many Christians merely see the Lord’s table as a sacrament to be strictly observed rather than seeing Jesus Christ as the true bead and source of their very lives? Living in this “me generation” it is very difficult to move beyond a preoccupation with one’s own physical, self preservation to become a thirsty, blind beggar asking Christ for a crumb from His table. In this sermon, we are going to review the passage where Jesus says, “He is the bread of life,” in hopes that each of us might reprioritize our lives to seek and find the only bread that can satisfy our soul’s hunger to know our Lord, Saviour and King!

Familiar but Difficult Passage

Why is it that some of the best-known passages are the most difficult to understand and apply to our lives? What Christian has not heard of Jesus calling Himself “the bread of life?” Since most have heard of this saying then can one safely conclude that most understand and are looking to Jesus as the bread and substance of their lives? Unfortunately, the answer is no, which of course sparks the question why? One of the minor prophets, Amos spoke of a day that would come when no one will be willing to preach true doctrine and as a result men and women would wander up and down the streets and yet would not find it (Amos 8:11-12)! Paul also warned Timothy that a day would come when people would no longer put up with sound doctrine but instead would prefer to hear whatever their itching ears wanted to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). There is a big difference I think between a carnal Christian and one who is growing and maturing in the faith. The carnal Christian focuses on what God can do for them while they continue to live their lives in sin, while the maturing Christian is consumed with trying to become more like Christ. Before I begin I would ask that you try and put aside those carnal desires we all have and in faith reach forward and ask Christ to show you what it truly means to have one’s soul fed by the true bread of life!

Background of the Text

Before we can truly understand today’s passage we must go back to the first part of John 6 and review the miracle Jesus had done prior to making His statement that He is the bread of life. In the opening of chapter six, we are told that a great crowd followed Jesus because of the signs or miracles that He had performed (1-2). We are also told that Jesus and His disciples went up a mountainside and sat down (3-4). Jesus then turned to Philip and asked him “where shall we buy bread for these people to eat” (5)? Jesus was testing him and in response Philip replied, “it would take more than a year’s wages to buy enough food for each one to have a bite” (7). Jesus had the people sit down and took five small barley loaves and two small fish, blessed them and proceeded to feed five thousand men plus women and children (10). Not only did the loaves and fish feed everyone but there were 12 full baskets of food left over (12)! We are told at the end of this passage that the people who saw this miracle began to say that Jesus was a prophet (14)!

Give us a Sign!

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

The people asked Jesus to prove that He was a prophet greater than Moses by doing greater miracles than Moses had done in the desert. Given the spectacular miracle Jesus had performed in the feeding of 5,000 just the day before, it seems incredible that they would once again need another sign. While it is possible that they were either naïve or forgetful, it is more likely that their request came from the teaching of their “rabbis who said the Messiah would duplicate the miracle of the giving of manna that had been given originally by Moses.” Since Moses provided manna six days a week for forty years in the wilderness, then surely a single multiplying of fish and loaves would not constitute enough proof of Jesus’ identity! After all, in their minds one who makes the claim to be the Son of Man who was sent by God to provide eternal life (verses 27,29) must provide substantial proof to be believed, right? While some would have wanted to see a miracle to substantiate Jesus’s claim to be the Messiah others may have asked for a sign so that they could manipulate Jesus into giving them free food. Since 85 percent of their wage went to buying food getting it free meant they would have lots of money left over to buy luxuries.