Can you smell the bread?
John 6:1-9, 22-35 (have bread baking in a bread machine while speaking)
He reproves them for seeking carnal food, and directs them to spiritual food v. 26, 27, showing them how they must labour for spiritual food v. 28, 29, and what that spiritual food is v. 30–59
Christ showed himself pleased with their attendance, and concerned for their welfare
The souls of the poor are precious to Christ, and should be so to us, as those of the rich
Can he furnish a table in the wilderness?
They were barley loaves. Canaan was a land of wheat Deu. 8:8; its inhabitants were commonly fed with the finest wheat Ps. 81:16, the kidneys of wheat Deu. 32:14; yet Christ and his disciples were glad of barley-bread
Let us despise the provision of the poor, nor look upon it with contempt, remembering how Christ was provided for
There were but five loaves, and those so small that one little lad carried them all; and we find 2 Ki. 4:42, 43 that twenty barley-loaves, would not feed a hundred men without a miracle
There were but two fishes, and those small ones, so small that one of them was but a morsel
People get so accustomed to the fake that they cannot appreciate the genuine
Illustration: Bought up on real butter we know the taste; kids spit it out because man made substitutes have become the taste for this generation
Men have filled their hearts with the fluff and rotted wood of man made religion, be it scientific, pagan or even "Christian"
The things of the world are food that perishes
Worldly wealth, honour, and pleasure, are their food
A carnal heart
They feel good about what they have so why change?
What many of them need is to see genuine Christianity in action
With so many Christians AWOL from church and service or attending but pretending they don’t have any thrill and excitement to change what they have
We need to create a desire and hunger in people for the true Bread of Life
The world is starving to death on junk food
Will you allow Jesus Christ to feed them through you and fill their void?
Many followed Christ for the loaves, and not for love
They wanted to make him king, so that under his reign, they might be protected by his compassion for the people, and his ability to multiply the loaves
They were thinking of themselves, and securing their own physical needs
They wanted Jesus to continue to perform his miracles, so that their life would be physically blessed
If we really want to understand this sixth chapter of John, which uplifts Jesus as the Bread of Life, we cannot limit our thoughts by thinking in purely physical terms
We have to begin to see this miraculous event as a sign that points us in another direction, to consider a different meaning
As we read John’s Gospel, it becomes clear, that the author wants us To move beyond the physical aspect of the miracle, beyond our Lord’s ability to physically feed the hungry, to physically multiply loaves of bread, to inspire us to encounter Jesus AS the “Bread of Life.”
John wants us to recognize that Jesus is able to feed us with heavenly food, food that nourishes us in our relationship with God
This not about us, and our physical needs, as much as it is about Jesus – who he truly is, and his ability to feed us in faith
Jesus was speaking in terms of feeding us and nourishing us in our relationship with God.
The fragments filled twelve baskets, one for each disciple
God rewards his servants
He was not saying, that if you believe in me and worship me on a regular basis, you will never experience physical hunger
He was not saying that we don’t worry about our physical needs any longer
He was saying that those who come to him, and believe in him, will be satisfied in their hunger to know God, and to experience his forgiving grace
Jesus is usually sought after for something else and not for his own sake
A personal need: healing, financial, hurt etc
Taste and see that the Lord is good
The Torah and the word of the prophets is the bread of life – but in his teachings, Jesus applies this image to himself
He was challenging the people to look beyond what they could perceive with their eyes or sense with their stomachs
It was as if Jesus was saying, “We do not live by bread alone, but by the word of God” – the same answer he gave to the tempter in the wilderness
He was challenging the people to come to see that in him, they could truly behold and be fed, not with physical bread, but with the word of God, which would end the famine for God’s Word that Amos predicted
Jesus is the embodiment of the Word of God
John wants us to understand that in Jesus, the word of the Torah and the prophets are personalized, from some abstract ideology on which we might strive to live our lives
It’s to become present and personal to us
He wants us to realize that as we come to know Jesus, to embrace Jesus you take bread to nourish your body
We then receive food for our spiritual life
verse 51. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Bread and its place in the worship life of Christ’s church
It does not take a theologian to make the connection between this comment of Jesus, and the celebration of communion
When we gather for worship, there is always more involved in the communion than what we can see with our eyes and ear with our ears
Even though the churches that seem to be growing at this time seem to focus on making their services more entertaining, and meeting the needs of the people
This invites us to challenge people to be challenged by God’s word, and to look beyond having their physical needs and desires met, in order to truly encounter the presence of Christ
There must be more than this!
“No Bread In The House Of Bread” (Bethlehem)
Ruth 1:1-6, 22 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land
Why do people leave churches?
There’s no bread, no satisfaction
We must have more to offer than the world does
Naomi and her family have something in common with the people who leave or totally avoid our churches today
They left “that” place and went somewhere else to find bread
The priority of God’s presence and his word has been lost in the modern church
We’re like bakeries with no bread
We’re not even interested in selling bread
We just like the chit-chat that goes on around cold ovens and empty shelves
A social club, meeting place
But no transformation of heart
Do we even know whether He’s here or not, and if He is here, what is He doing?
Where is He going?
Or are we too preoccupied with sweeping out imaginary crumbs from bakeries with no bread
Do we even know when He’s in town?
The Pharisees were inside the temple praying for the Messiah to come, when He rode right by their temple on a donkey
They missed their hour of visitation
We can be inside praying for him to come while He passes by outside
Who got fed that day?
Not the religious Pharisees
They thought they had the food of spirituality
But those with nothing in their hands of their own
People are flocking to bars, clubs, and psychics by the millions in search of bread
They are trying to everything to fill their hunger because the church has failed them
They’ve looked, or know of someone that has looked to the church just to find that the spiritual cupboard was bare
Just empty shelves and offices full of recipes for bread, but the ovens were cold and dusty
We falsely advertise that there is bread in the house
But when the hungry come, all they can do is scrounge through the carpet of yesteryear revivals and of modern programs, but they find no fresh manna
We talk so greatly about what He has done in the past, but can say very little about what He is doing today
People have come to the house of bread time and again to find that there was too much of man and too little of God
There is as much of God in most bars as there in most churches
If there is no bread in the house, who could blame them for not coming in?
When Bethlehem, the house of bread, is empty, people were forced to look other places
Naomi discovered, Moab is a cruel place, it will steal your sons from you
In the days of Joseph, all of the land (Egypt and Canaan) was in famine
Egypt had more to offer than Canaan because they prepared
Israel went to Egypt because they were the ones who could satisfy their needs in the time of famine; by doing so, they left the promised land and walked into over two hundred years of bondage
Our constant cry of hot bread is backed up only by stale crumbs on a frayed carpet of man’s tradition
They have left countless generations hungry, homeless, and with nowhere else to go but Moab, the world
I’m tired of having crumbs
Hearing about miracles and God’s presence
Do you want this?
What will you do to get it?
We must cultivate the presence of Jesus
What has happened to the real bread?
The sign is still up, ‘meet God here’
We still take people into our churches and show them the ovens where we used to bake bread
The ovens are all still in place and everything is there
No one wants to get hot for God any more
The traditions and religious duties
But all you can find is crumbs from last year’s visitation, or from the last great wave of revival years ago
What sign will you show us then, that we may see, and believe you?
Read the label on the last loaf of bread you bought, you’ll discover that it has been vitaminized, fortified, and pulverized
Bread is not the simple thing it once was
But you cannot improve on the bread of life
More than that, it is unique
You can make physical bread from wheat, rye, rice, barley, corn, even potatoes
But Bread for the soul can come from only one source. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" John 6:48
The Bread of Life never goes stale
Where there is bread, the hungry will come
Our prayers should be that people become hungry for truth
Like Naomi when she heard a rumor of bread back in the House of Bread
Are you, and can you spread this rumor?
There really can be bread back in the House of Bread! If God’s is in the church
Two things happen when the bread of God’s presence is restored to the church
1. Naomi was a prodigal who left the house of bread when that table became bare. Yet once she heard that God had restored bread to Bethlehem, the house of bread, she quickly returned
The prodigals will come walking back into Bethlehem from Moab once they know there is bread in the house, and they won’t come alone
Those that have never been saved will come with them!
Luke 4:4 And Jesus said, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God
For too long, many have been content to comb the carpet for crumbs instead of wanting the abundant loaves of hot bread God has prepared in the ovens of Heaven!
He has prepared a great table of His presence and He is calling to the church, “Come and Dine.”
2. There are those that aren’t content with crumbs anymore.
They want a full loaf; Him and Him alone
He is not the God of crumbs and lack
He is waiting to give unending loaves of His life-giving presence
But our problem is described by James 4:3, “Ye have not because ye ask not.”
The way to get Him is to get hungry and ask for the bread of heaven
The Table of Showbread literally means, “The Table of the Bread of the Presence”, because this table held fresh bread constantly, before the presence of the Lord. It was never to be empty and the bread was refreshed every 7 days
The loaves were replaced every Sabbath with new ones and the old loaves then were eaten by the priests of the temple
Was it stale? No
Illustration: According to Jewish traditions and writings, when the priests came to replace the bread with new loaves every Sabbath, they found that those of the previous week remained fresh and hot upon the table, like the moment they were baked. This miracle was seen as a clear confirmation that the Divine Presence indeed rested in this holy place
Ministers you have a duty to give your people fresh bread each week
Before you give it, you must prepare it, then in the heat of the ovens bake it
Each sermon must be lived out in the heat of life to prove it’s genuine
Jesus, the bread of heaven came that we might have life and life more abundantly, but we cannot have that life without partaking of the Bread that He gives
The Showbread speaks to us of a personal encounter with the Word of God through Jesus Christ
In His presence we may eat of Him, receive our spiritual food and obtain eternal life
But too many are satisfied to just be fed by someone else
Spoon-fed Christians
Many are satisfied with just getting the milk of the Word and not getting into the solid food or meat of the Word
Lazy Christians
God desires for each of us to be illuminated and enlightened by the presence of the Holy Spirit but then we are to go on into a deeper walk with the Lord
That can only happen as we partake of the Bread of Life through the Living Word of God
What are you eating?
Come and dine and eat the bread of life
