May, 2007
I AM the Bread of Life
John 6:5-58
INTRODUCTION: John chapter 6 opens with the scene where a great crowd of people have gathered to hear Jesus. It is getting late in the day; and Jesus, wanting to test Philip, asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all of these people.” Philip answered, “There’s not enough bread to go around for all these people even if we had the money to buy it.” They found a little boy who had 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish. There were around 5000 men in the group plus the women and children. Andrew spoke up and said, “but what is that among so many?” However, Jesus knew already what He planned to do. He instructed the disciples to get the people seated.
The crowd was probably impressed by his miracle-working power and even more so by the fact that he cared. They had watched him heal the sick and now feed all of these people with a small lunch. But the miracles did not cause the people to believe in Him. They acknowledged the fact that He was a Prophet who had come to the nation of Israel, and they were considering taking Him by force and making Him their king.
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and He went to the mountains to pray. Later the 12 disciples left by boat to go to Capernaum. The next morning the people were looking for Jesus. When He did not come, they searched for Him and found Him at Capernaum. They asked, “Where were You? How did you get over here?”
Jesus said, “You are not looking for me because you are interested in the miracles. You are looking for me because I fed you.” Once again Jesus started where the people were--with food and made the transition to a spiritual application.
Today’s scripture is another one of the “I AM” claims of Jesus--I AM the Bread. How does this scripture speak to us today?
1. What Is Our Focus?: Jesus knew that these people were only concerned about their physical needs--the food that He could provide. They looked upon Him as a free meal ticket. They made Him the God of their liking--He could help them to be successful, to rescue them from problems, to respond quickly to their complaints, and give them bread without the need to work for it, and they could keep Him far enough away when they wanted to do their own thing. He gave them some advice at this point. He said:
1. Don’t focus your life and your efforts on food that spoils.
2. Focus your life and your efforts on the food that will enable you to live forever.
3. I can give you that food, and God Himself has confirmed that I can give it to you.
Today as you think of your own life, what do you focus your life on? What needs do you spend most of your time trying to satisfy? Listen to what you are saying as you talk to your family and friends every day. People today work really hard for a lot of things to satisfy them to the exclusion of things that REALLY satisfy. Some people are spending all of their time on their careers to the exclusion of everything else--driving themselves for success. Others are making sure their children are at every ball game to the exclusion of other things. People say “if I don’t have something BETTER TO DO, I’LL COME TO CHURCH.” Some make sure that their homes are the top priority to the exclusion of other things that last far longer. Jesus is not saying don’t have a good career, a nice house, leisure activities, or money in the bank. But He is saying, “Don’t labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.” He is not saying, “Don’t work. You need some money--but don’t make that or any number of other things your Primary Reason for working.” Someone once said that in every person’s heart is a “loaf shaped vacancy until Jesus fills it.”
St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee.” Are we filling our lives with things that are not really satisfying to us?
2. They Didn’t Get the Point: As Jesus made the transition from the natural bread to the spiritual bread, they just didn’t get it. How often do we, too, miss the point? We feel confused as we read the scriptures or as we try to “figure God out.”
Story: There was a man who wore a badge on his coat with the letters BAIK. People would come up to him and ask what the letters meant.
He would answer, “Boy, am I confused.”
When he was reminded that “confused” is spelled with a “c” instead of a “K” he said, “You don’t know how confused I am!”
The crowd that Jesus was dealing with was also confused because they asked Jesus, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” They totally did not know what He was talking about. They asked, “What kind of a sign can you show us so we can believe in you? What work do you perform?” He had just supplied them with food in a miraculous way. And they were saying, “Well, now what can you show us?”
Then they said, “Moses gave our ancestors manna to eat in the wilderness. God sent Moses to be our great leader and he fed our ancestors with manna. If God sent you to be our great leader, feed us too.”
Perhaps they were confused--at least some of them. A lot more were trying to figure out how he could be their meal ticket for a lifetime. How many times we are like the person whose name was Jimmy.
“My name’s Jimmy, gimmy all you can gimmy.”
Jesus was not going to let them manipulate him just for the loaves and the fishes. He first of all said, “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it was my Father who gave it.”
The people said, “Well, then, give us this bread--that’s what we want.” All this time the conversation has been about food--bread, a basic food. And now Jesus is trying to make the transition to tell them about some bread that was far better. And they still didn’t get it. Or they didn’t WANT to get it.
At this point the tells them, “It is God who is offering you the true bread from heaven right now. This bread that God is offering right now has the power to give life to this world.” They would say, “Yes, this is what we want. Give it to us evermore” (verse 34).
Then He made the impact statement, “I AM that bread of life” (verse 48). Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live.”
The Jews began to murmur and said, “We don’t want that kind of bread. We don’t eat that kind of bread.”
Story: During one of the January blizzards there was an elderly couple that went to our church. We asked them if they needed anything from the store. They said, “Yes, We need milk and bread.” We went to the IGA and the shelves were about bare and it was snowing really hard by then. We were able to get milk and a loaf of bread for them and we took it by their house. They said, “We don’t eat that kind of bread.” AND I thought, “Buddy, you’re lucky to get any kind of loaf of bread!”
The Jews were the same way. “We don’t want that--who do you think you are? You are just the carpenter, Joseph’s son. We know your family. We know where you grew up. You’re not anything special. What is all this nonsense about you coming from heaven?” Are we the same way? We have totally different expectations of how God will reveal Himself to us. We don’t understand, are confused, or try to change His plan. We don’t like it the way it is. People say, “Nobody believes that stuff anymore.” “Hey, we’re in a new millennium now. We don’t need to go to church any more. Let’s make up our own rules…”
In this chapter, verse 44, Jesus knew the hearts of people. He said, “no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” Today we need more of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to touch people--to open their eyes--to make the impact upon their lives and upon our lives.
Story: There were some college students who were out drinking one night. They thought they would get one of them to go to the chaplain’s house and give him a rough time. One guy said, “I’ll go.” They were laughing and making fun of the chaplain and when the guy knocked on the door the chaplain came to the door and let him in, but he knew that he couldn’t get through to him. He was just talking nonsense. He was drunk.
The chaplain made him sit down on a chair and told him, “I want you to look at this picture of Jesus on the cross, and I’ll be back in a little while.”
When the chaplain came back, the man was down on his knees praying and he got saved that night. The Holy Spirit convicted him of his sins and his need to change whereas the chaplain couldn’t have probably made an impact on him.
Jesus was saying to these people:
1. No one will be attracted to me unless God pulls him toward me.
2. The person who has allowed God to teach him will come to me.
3. The person who believes in me will receive unending life.
4. I am the living bread, and the person eats me shall live forever.
3. How Do You Do This?: Jesus was trying to teach the people a spiritual concept. That’s why we read the scriptures and come to church because we need to turn our focus on spiritual truths. Many people make it so difficult, but Jesus made it quite simple. The key is in verse 47--”He that believeth on me has everlasting life.”
Believe in Him means to recognize that He is present in your life. Believe that when He died and rose again and ascended into heaven and sent the Spirit again into the world, it was in order to make Himself available to us.
Believe in Him means to learn to look at your situation through His eyes, to see life as he sees it. Jesus is saying, “believe that I know what I am talking about. Believe that I can work.” Learn the resources that he makes available to you. The Bible calls these “spiritual weapons” in II Corinthians 10:4--they can pull down strongholds, they can remove obstacles to the knowledge of God. They allow people to have light in their darkness or Bread when they are hungry.
Coming to Christ and believing in Him are seen to be synonymous. Believe in Him means to count on Jesus to be at work in your ordinary responses to situations in which you find yourself. Expect Him to be involved in them. Verse 29 says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” In ordinary circumstances of life you become the instrument of God at work. That is “doing the work of God.”
Jesus tells the crowd plainly in verse 35 how to eat and partake of the bread of life. He uses two things that we all understand--hunger and thirst.
When you are hungry you eat.
When you are thirsty you drink.
And if you keep on eating regularly you will never hunger. What Jesus is saying is that coming to Him--is to respond to Him by seeing Him as present in your life and expecting Him to do something--to act, to comfort, to strengthen, or whatever it is. “Eating means a sense of expectancy that He is available and will fill that Loaf shaped vacancy in your life. Drinking is believing, listening to what He has to say and obeying it. Keep on coming to Him. Keep on believing. This is the way to lay hold of the gift of bread from heaven, life that is real life. Acts 17:28 says, “in Him we live and move and have our being.” Bread must be eaten. Christ must be invited into our daily walk to sustain spiritual life. To eat means to appropriate Christ as one’s life. Come to Him daily. How?
We do this by FAITH. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently see Him.”
Our RESPONSE is an activity of the individual. Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
LET US PRAY:
