Dakota Community Church
March 9, 2008
I Am the Bread of Life
Last week we saw Jesus as the light of the world. In the light we are able to see, we stop stumbling our way through life. In the light we find growth and direction, we discover a God who loves and cares for us and has a plan and purpose for our lives, and in the light, because we can now see, we find responsibility. We can no longer claim ignorance where the plight of those in need around us is concerned.
This week we are going to look at another revelation of Jesus, the bread of life.
Begin by reading John 6:25-59.
John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Jesus declares himself to be the end of hunger and thirst. The search is over, the longing that drives humanity to work and sweat, and strive for more and more, for provision for self, is over in Christ. Jesus is the end of longing if we will come to Him for our satisfaction.
John 6:47-51
I tell you the truth; he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
The people wanted Jesus to provide for them the way Moses had provided manna. They wanted more of the feeding of the 5000 type miracles; they wanted an end to life as they knew it and a beginning with a Messiah who supplied all their earthly needs.
Jesus hears this desire and compares the plan of God to their plan.
The plan of man is temporary and ends in death, but the plan of God is eternal and results in life to all who will believe.
Let’s look at the manna and see if we can find the types of Christ that God was foreshadowing.
Read Exodus 16:1-35
Like the manna Jesus is:
1. Supernatural provision for all needs.
Exodus 16:14-18
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: ’Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’ "
The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
God provides everything we need in and through Jesus.
We add on to what we think is required, but this is not God’s doing.
Have you fallen into thinking that the abundant life comes through having Jesus AND something?
Are you a proponent of Jesus and worldly wealth?
What about Jesus and religious duty?
Jesus and tithing, Jesus and perfect attendance, Jesus and work at the soup kitchen, Jesus and career success, Jesus and family life, you name it, we try to add to the definition of what satisfies; but simple manna; "the bread that came down from heaven", is all that is really required.
2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through our knowledge of Him; everything we need for life and godliness.
That is not how we want it. We want to do something or to force others to do something to make it seem like we have earned it.
Insecurity drives a need to feel better, superior or “over” other members of the Body. That is kingdom of this world thinking.
Luke 23:40-43
But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Do you see this? The disciples didn’t get it, the religious leaders didn’t get it, but this criminal gets the kingdom. He realizes that it is a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly one, he gets that the KING is going to die and the kingdom is going to be established through His death.
Like the manna Jesus is:
2. A source of constant complaining.
Numbers 11:4-9
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
Do we complain about Jesus the way the children of Israel complained about the manna? Sadly many of us do.
Complaining always seems justified to the complainer.
Think about this, God is raining down total nutritional provision from heaven, but it is the same thing every day. Same food everyday for forty years, do you really think you would not start to complain, no matter how healthy your body was from a totally God ordained nutritional balance?
I think you would complain and I think God (Being omniscient and all.) knew there would be complaining; so why didn’t he mix it up? Why didn’t God send down a variety of heavens tasty treats, maybe on a rotating basis so everyone would be happy?
This was a type of what was to come, a preview if you will. There is only one supply, there is only one source, there is only one way to have our needs met. We don’t like that, we want all paths to lead to God, but they don’t.
All the arguments about how great the variety was in Egypt are moot points.
Egypt was the place of slavery and the road to freedom is fed by manna and manna alone.
There is no other way, Jesus is the only bread of life.
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 11
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
Like the manna Jesus is:
3. A source of daily provision.
Everyday the manna had to be collected in an amount sufficient for that day only.
Look at how Jesus taught the disciples to pray.
Matthew 6:10-11
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
Notice it is "today" - you are going to have to be face to face with the bread of heaven every single day if you want to make it. Once a week for an hour and a half is not going to cut it.
Also notice it is "our" not my; we are not in this alone, we are not done if our individual need is met, we are a body. This thing goes way beyond personal satisfaction, how is your neighbour doing? Think about it!
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
