“I am the bread of life!”
Series: “I am”
Thesis: Jesus said in the Gospel of John: “I am the bread of life!” and it was a sudden impact moment between men and God. Jesus let the then world know that He was “God in the flesh.” He was the same God “I am” that meet with Moses in the burning bush, it caused quit the stir!
Opening thoughts:
“I am” and Yahweh come from the same root word but have different tense references “I am” is 1st person “Yahweh” 3rd Person.
Pronunciation of Yahweh
The covenant name for the God of Israel in the Old Testament is Yahweh. This name was so sacred that by the second century BC the Jews refused to pronounce it. Orthodox Jews will not pronounce this sacred name even today. When the ancient Jewish Scholar came across the name Yahweh he would pronounce it “Adonai” which means my Lord.
The Hebrew at that time had no vowels. The system of vowel points had not been invented, and therefore Yahweh was written YHVH, which is called the Tetragrammaton (The four letter word). No one really knows how it was pronounced. When the Masoretic scholars added to the consonantal word YHVH the vowels from the word Adonai, the name turned out to be YaHoVah.” However, this hybrid word. Therefore, Jehovah has been dropped from many modern translations in favor of “Yahweh.”
Scripture Texts:
John 6:25-49:
Jesus the Bread of Life
25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35Then 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.
36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.
37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.
44“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
45It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’£ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
48I am the bread of life.
49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.
50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
51I 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.”
52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”
59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Exodus 3:14
14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Introduction:
The word “I am” found in the Gospel of John is a pivotal statement made by Jesus. The name “I am” is Jesus’ claim to deity and it is similar to Jehovah (Yahweh) except that the form is not third person futuristic tense but is the first person (elyeh) which denotes that Jesus is the same God who spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush.
T.S. - To better understand this pivotal statement by Christ let’s explore the meaning of “I am” from Exodus 3:14.
I. The first instance of God calling himself “I am” (Exodus 3:14)
a. The scenario
i. Moses and the Burning Bush
1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you£ will worship God on this mountain.”
13Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
ii. The intent of God’s statement to Moses
1. “I am” is the name given by God to Moses when Moses asked for credentials that would convince the children of Israel that God had indeed authorized him to lead them out of Egypt.
2. The disclosure of the name is given from the burning bush which was not consumed.
a. This scenario paints a picture of something that is eternal by its burning and constant in that it never will burn out because it does not burn up its energy source.
iii. The response of God to Moses about knowing the Patriarchs and also seeing the suffering of His people reveals God’s Omnipresence, Omnipotence (etc.)
1. Thus the name “I am,” or “I am that I am,” designates He was in the past and the “I am” first person reveals He’s with them presently and He will be in the future with them as well.
2. God’s identification with His people is forever, for He has willed to be known as the God who is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob.
a. Note: Exodus 3:15 “My name forever and this is my memorial unto all generations.”
iv. The main point is Moses’ credentials and the sign of who is sending Him.
1. The reason for sending Moses is deliverance of the children of Israel. He is the one – “I AM” – who will with power and action deliver them from Egypt, and will in the future deliver them from sin’s bondage.
2. God’s name “I am” then is very significant in that:
a. “Past with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What was needed was not a name which disclosed that God was what He was, but that He is and will be in the future what He admittedly was in the past: the God of their fathers and, therefore, the God of their children, the children of Israel, who therefore should accept Moses’ claim that God had called him to deliver them out of Egypt” (Tenney, page 238).
b. Tenney noted:
i. The most distinctive name by which God was known in Israel is Yahweh (Jehovah), which comes from the same root as “I am.” But this third person instead of the first person, future, and whose meaning throughout the OT is that God has made a covenant with the children of Israel to which God will ever remain faithful and will never break. It is within this content of the meaning of “Yahweh” --- a name that appears repeatedly in Exodus 3 that the “I am” is given to Moses as a credential that will-and did-convince the children of Israel that God willed through Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into a better future” (Tenney, page 238).
T.S. – God first called Himself “I Am” to Moses and then Jesus did it in the New Testament and it stirred up the Jews and even His own followers.
II. The appearance of “I am” in the New Testament in the Gospel of John is revelatory.
a. John’s Gospel has the most extensive series of “I am” claims of the New Testament.
i. The theological themes in John begin with the revelation that Jesus is the revelatory Word (logos) of God.
1. Note the comparison of John’s Gospel with establishing the fact that Christ always was. In John 1:1, 2 and in Exodus 3 God says, “He always was!”
2. John’s Gospel Christological in content emphasizes His deity and His humanity.
3. John uses Jesus’ statements of “I am” to emphasize and prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah.
4. The “I am” claims are solemn emphatic statements using first person terminology. Each one of Christ’s seven emphatic statements brings home an important aspect of the person and the ministry of Jesus.
a. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48; 6:41, 51).
b. “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12)
c. “I am the door” (John 10:7, 9)
d. “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14)
e. “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)
f. “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6)
g. “I am the true vine” (John 15:1, 5)
5. In addition, there are “I am” statements not followed by a compliment. These suggest the claim to be the I am –Yahweh of the Old Testament
a. John 4:25-26: 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
b. John 8:24, 28, 58: 24I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am -the one I claim to be- you will indeed die in your sins… 28So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am ‹the one I claim to be› and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me… 58“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
c. John 13:19: 19“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.
d. John 6:20: 20But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”
e. John 7:34, 36: 34You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come… 36What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
f. John 14:3: 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
g. John 17:24: 24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
h. Ex. 3:14: 14“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
b. The meaning of the, “I am” statements spoken by Jesus in the New Testament are traced back to its first appearance in the OT with Moses and the burning bush.
i. The Jewish nation even though seeking and looking for the “Messiah” resisted the claims of Jesus to lead them out of the slavery of sin and into a future of freedom. They missed their own Messiah who fulfilled many of prophetic texts.
1. They were blind to the Messiah who stood in front of them!
ii. Jesus stated in John 8:58: “Before Abraham was, I am.”
1. Instead of believing in Jesus the majority of them rejected Him!
2. Their own mindsets and intellects blocked them from seeing their Saviour!
T.S. - Jesus did not hide His deity – He proclaimed it and many people refused to believe He was who He said He was – even with the miracles.
III. The seven “I am” statements or declarations in Johns Gospel.
a. “I am the bread of life”
i. John 6:35, 48: “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. .. I am the bread of life.”
1. Compare with John 6:41, 51: “At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven…51I 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.”
a. Christ is saying He is the one who gives life sustaining food which enables us to live forever.
i. He came down from Heaven – He came directly from God and He is God!
ii. Jews did not like this proclamation and it created a upheaval with the Jews and with Jesus own disciples.
2. See John 6
a. The feeding of the 5,000
i. Deut. 18:14-22:
1. The Prophet
14The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.
15The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
16For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17The LORD said to me: “What they say is good.
18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
19If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.
20But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
21You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?”
22If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
ii. The Jewish writings especially the Talmud spoke of a Messiah who would come and at Passover repeat the Old Testament miracle of manna. He would do this at Passover time and repeat the miracle Moses did in the wilderness.
1. The rabbi’s also noted, “The latter redeemer (that is Messiah) shall be revealed and whether he lead them? Some say into the wilderness of Judah; others in the wilderness of Sihon and Og.
a. When Jesus fed the 5,000 in the wilderness this day was in the desert of Og in Batanea or Bashan.
b. Jesus even fulfilled Talmud and Hebraic writings about the Jews coming Messiah.
3. See John 6:14,15
a. Just before Jesus’ first “I am” statement the multitude comfortably ate of the fish and the bread and it filled their bellies. Jesus had provided food for them supernaturally and yet they failed to see the connection.
i. Jesus turns their attention away from earthly food to eternal food for the soul.
ii. Spiritual food that will feed a person eternal life.
4. John 6:30-34:
a. In this part we have the Jews asking for a sign.
i. At the time of their demand it baffles me as I read because I just saw and witnessed a miracle in this text.
1. Problem is they were spiritually blind to the sign they just ate of.
2. How many today cry for miracles but when they happen they deny they are miracles?
a. People still fail to see Jesus as God in the flesh and they fail to believe in Him.
ii. They ask Jesus to repeat His miracle of providing them with manna from heaven. Their thoughts do not associate bread with manna and they then misquote God’s deed and attribute it to Moses. Jesus corrects them.
1. But he has already done the miracle! They fail to see it!
5. John 6:35-39:
a. He makes the statement “I am the bread of life.”
i. Disbelief sets in on the participants. Even though Jewish tradition and the Talmud had many teachings in Jewish schools on the phrases “eating and drinking” in a metaphorical sense.
1. They criticize His choice of words, they get mad and angry and some of them – His own followers leave!
a. John 6:52-71
ii. In the Talmud on Ecclesiastics all the references to eating and drinking are understood in the parabolic style of speaking about the law.
1. Bread is frequently used in Jewish written doctrine.
iii. Rabbi Hillel talks about “Eating the Messiah” yet the Jewish leaders had no quarrel with his phraseology.
Conclusion:
Application and Meaning
1. The bread of which He speaks is not something like the manna which they can pick up and eat. It is nothing less than Himself John 6:48, 51.
2. The bread of life is another way of linking life in closest fashion with Christ. He himself is the food the energy that nourishes spiritual life. It is only from this bread that men really obtain life.
3. The emphasis is on how to become a Christian. Jesus stresses moving away from the old life with its beggarly famine and its total inability to satisfy and into all that association with Christ means.
a. Point: They must come! They must believe! We must come and eat! And we must believe.
b. The Lord’s Supper – a parallel
i. Jesus declared
1. The he is himself the Bread of God – the Bread of life for a starving world.
2. That his flesh –his wondrous humanity-the veritable abode of the Word of God-will constitute the food of man.
3. That the death of the Divine humanity, the separation of his blood and flesh, must be appropriated by men.
4. That only by this acceptance and entire assimilation-not only of his incarnation, but of his sacrificial death-will men receive him, or live because he lives (Pulpit page 255).
This sermon leads us right into communion:
Read John 6:47-51
Then read 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Pass out elements – while the elements are being passed out play slide show and song remember me!
