I Am, the Bread of Life
Date: March 25, 2012
Scripture: John 6:30-35, 47-51
Introduction
Have you ever been hungry-I mean REALLY hungry?
I remember being/hospital/years ago/Part/treatment involved my not being allowed to eat or drink for several days with my only sustenance coming from IV fluids and an occasional ice chip.
Well, as the days dragged by I became VERY hungry....
• I was confined to bed so there was nothing to take my mind off my intense desire to eat-other than to watch TV...
• And of course you know that the vast majority of TV commercials have to do with food.
• Sometimes I was so ravenous I would close my eyes and imagine chewing a piece of thick juicy steak
• Or a big hunk of meat lovers Pizza or a slice of hot apple pie smothered in vanilla ice cream.
Well if you've ever been that hungry you know how tough it can be to stomach that kind of discomfort.
• Hunger is a VERY powerful desire.
• It's one of our bodies strongest inner drives
• Because our minds are programmed to know that food is essential to life.
The desire for food is strong enough to deceive us and warp our perceptions.
This is why we say our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, because if we are hungry enough we think we can consume more than we actually can.
• How many times have you said, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!
• Hunger has also been known to make people DO things they normally wouldn't DO
• and SEE things that aren't actually there
• And even BELIEVE things that aren't true.
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Well, this morning/continue/study of Jesus' I Am... sayings
• we read/incident/Jesus’ earthly ministry that deals with hungry people
• People whose hunger in fact had deluded them into buying into some of the world's biggest misconceptions.
Now to fully understand how this happened we need to of course understand the setting.
Prior to this morning's text Jesus had just performed His most popular miracle-appearing in all four gospels.
• It began when thousands of people followed Him to a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
• John says there were 5,000 people/this was only the head count of the men present
• If you included the women/children who were no doubt present,
• There were probably more like 15,000 people who crowded together on that hillside.
Well about mid afternoon Jesus turned to His disciples and compassionately pointed out the need to feed this huge multitude.
• In response Andrew brought a little boy to Jesus who was willing to share his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish.
As you know, Jesus then miraculously used this meal, intended to fill the belly of a small boy, to stuff the stomachs of 15,000 people and there were even 12 baskets of left-overs!
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But you know, when you think of it, there were actually TWO miracles that afternoon:
• ONE that Jesus fed fifteen thousand people with this small amount of food
• The other that this little boy had not already eaten his lunch by mid afternoon!
Well, the day after all this happened some of those who had eaten the bread and fish provided by Jesus searched for Him all over the countryside on both sides of the Sea of Galilee.
The conversation in today's text occurred when they finally found Jesus in Capernaum.
Take your Bibles and turn to John 6
Sermon
Now, if we look at this text very closely together I think we will see three misconceptions that these hungry people embraced.
1. First off, they forgot that God is the source of all that is good in life....
The people were so impressed with the free meal they got, they decided to follow Jesus to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
• They followed Jesus not because He performed a miracle which showed Him to be someone special
• But because He seemed to be a meal ticket to the easy life.
• Jesus Himself acknowledges this:
(Jn 6:26) "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."
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• When they found Jesus and asked for another free meal,
They bragged that Moses had given the Hebrew people bread from heaven every day when they wandered in the wilderness.
And Jesus corrected them saying that the source of that bread was God...not Moses.
These hungry Hebrews had forgotten the foundational truth
• And that is everything we have is traceable back to God!
• God is the source of everything...
• How many times have you forgotten so easily….
• So easily that God is the source of all things in your life?
You see, when they saw and thought about Jesus' miracle, the crowds were literally smacking their lips.
• They saw here the opportunity to eat without working,
• to reap without sowing,
• To go out like the Israelites of Moses' day did for manna and simply collect food in baskets.
• Do we not take for granted the Lord and go about our day assuming He will just provide all to us.
• Not thanking Him, praising Him, praying to Him.
• So they asked, "Sir, from now on give us this bread" (vs 34).
And you know, we can very easily buy into this same misconception even today.
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Our income level makes it possible for us to have full cupboards and closets and garages and as a result
• We too easily forget the basic fact that everything we HAVE and everything we ARE simply would not be if it were not for God.
As John 1:1-3 says, In the beginning was the Word...All things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
Or as James puts it, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow nor turning. (1:17)
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How sad it is when we as wayward children put other “needs” ahead of the need of the bread of life made known in the person of Jesus Christ!
• Jesus Christ is the only real need that we have to live a life of eternal blessing
• And yet, we pursue our own needs, our own wants, our own cares.
• Putting the eternal Christ on the back burner.
• It’s time to place Christ in the midst of our being.
Friends, we have been blessed by God in too many ways to number, and yet, we feel just like the people in our text.
• We too, want Jesus to give us one more thing...
• To give us one more demonstration of his power.
It’s as if they were viewing Jesus’ ministry among them as a magic show of sorts
They weren’t satisfied with the things He had already done.
They wanted another demonstration of his power so “then they would believe”
It seems to me that it was well past time for them to believe in him and in the Father who had sent him.
• It is well past time for us as well to view him the same way
• To show our gratitude to him for the gifts he has already given to us.
• He forgives sinners
• He discharges debtors
• He delivers the captives
• He defends the feeble
• He blesses the young
• He serves the unfortunate
• He regards the aged
• He rewards the diligent and
• He beautifies the meager
• I wonder if you know him?
• He’s the key to knowledge
• He’s the wellspring of wisdom
• He’s doorway of deliverance
• He’s the pathway of peace
• He’s the roadway of righteousness
• He’s the highway of holiness
• He’s the gateway of glory
• Do you know Him?
Perhaps you aren’t feeling too blessed this morning... Maybe you can’t see the gifts that God has given you...
Maybe the pain of life has overwhelmed you to the point where you don’t see anymore how blessed you truly are.
• Like so many people today, maybe you have been so blessed, that even those blessings don’t look good anymore.
• How, then, can we overcome our mindset of apathy
• How can we move towards a true spirit of thanksgiving in a culture that teaches us to enter into the rat-race and compete for status with a world of un-thankful people.
Well, I don’t pretend to have all of the answers
But I do think we need to recognize God’s blessing in all of their manifestations and give thanks to him even when it seems impossible to do so.
• Make an effort today to recognize the blessings you’ve come to take for granted.
• Focus on what you have rather than on what you don’t have, and see if it doesn’t improve your attitude.
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A few suggestions:
• Be thankful you don’t already have everything you want.
• If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
• Be thankful when you don’t know something
• This gives you the opportunity to learn.
• Be thankful for the difficult times.
• During those times you grow.
• Be thankful for your limitations
• They give you opportunities for improvement.
• Be thankful for each new challenge
• It will build strength and character.
• Be thankful for your mistakes.
• They will teach you valuable lessons.
• Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
• It means you’ve made a difference.
• It’s easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of true fulfillment can come to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.
As hard as it may be, find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.
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• It is high time we as Christians grow up.
Christian maturity begins with the end of us/beginning of Him.
• It involves surrendering all of our hopes, aspirations, and expectations,
• as well as the pretended control we think we have over the things and people in our life
That, by the way, is why Jesus told His disciples to leave their families and professions to follow Him.
• That is why God commanded Abram to leave everything in Ur and follow His lead to the Promised Land.
• It is why Jesus said that those who take hold of the plow and look back are unfit to be His disciple.
As long as you and I continue deluding ourselves by thinking we know what’s best for us
• Demanding a four-course meal with all the trimmings
• We will never come to Christ/accept this bread He offers us.
• It is when we are spiritually impoverished, blind, wounded, lost, and know it—
• and confess to God we know it—
• That this life-giving, life-sustaining bread becomes all we need and all we want.
It is when we believe that God always has our best interests at heart
• That He always accomplishes what He promises
• Despite our present circumstances
• That this bread becomes a banquet.
And then, a second falsehood these people had bought into that day was their belief...
2. ...that powerful miracles would satisfy their hunger...
...when in fact, miracles tend to only make most people hungry for even MORE miracles.
It's like you and me when we attend those fireworks displays on the 4th of July.
We forget one huge star burst as soon as its light fades and crane our necks, yearning for the next powerful display.
• This is exactly what happened here.
• Jesus had just fed 15,000 people with the contents of a little boy's lunch box and the next day some of the same people were hungry for more signs of His power.
Why did Jesus do miracles?
Why did He change water into wine, feed the crowds, heal the sick, walk on water, and raise the dead?
Jesus' miraculous signs were done so that people may believe that He "is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (Jn 20:31).
The Miracles were done so Jesus would be recognized and acknowledged as the great I Am.
No means of measure can define his limitless love
He’s enduringly strong
He’s entirely sincere
He’s eternally steadfast
He’s immortally graceful
He’s imperially powerful
He’s impartially merciful
Do you know him?
He’s the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He’s God’s Son
He’s a sinner’s savior
He’s the centerpiece of civilization
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The crowds, however, missed this meaning of purpose. All they could see was the free food.
(John 6:27) "Do 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."
• We are physical, emotional, and spiritual beings.
As such, says Jesus, our deepest hungers and needs cannot possibly be met by the temporal and tangible things of this life.
• Why else do you think people today are so restless and empty and dissatisfied?
• We buy the latest electronic gadget, but it doesn't satisfy and soon they are back to buy the next gadget.
• Theirs is a yearning, a restlessness, a desire for more and more and more.
• Earthly things never satisfy, they never meet our deepest cravings, they never fill us to the brim.
• It takes more than money, possessions, prestige, position, or power to give our lives meaning and purpose.
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What are our deepest needs?
• Our deepest needs are forgiveness of sins
• A relationship with God and a new life without the burden of sin and shame.
• Christ is telling us that He, as the great I Am, meets this need.
Well, when it came to these particular Galileans, apparently the MESSAGE Jesus conveyed by multiplying the bread and the fishes fell on deaf ears.
• Instead of seeking to apply His teaching to their own lives,
• They responded by asking for more displays of His power before they would believe what He had to say.
• Don’t people today do the same thing!
• Don’t we continue to wait sometimes till God hits us with a sledgehammer!
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Well, why didn't Jesus just DO what they asked and perform another miracle right then and there
I think He knew it would do no good--for these guys were too focused on the gift to see the Giver.
• They had just witnessed one of Jesus' greatest acts of power
• But seeing a miracle didn't lead them to believe He was Who He said He Was
• It is doubtful that a second would have that affect.
• Miracles won't satisfy our hunger for God.
• Only a personal relationship with the Bread of Life will.
The Messiah was not going to save the world by miraculous, Band-Aid interventions: a storm calmed here, a crowd fed there, a mother-in-law cured back down the road.
Rather it was going to be saved by means of a deeper, darker, left-handed mystery, at the center of which lay His own death.
• Jesus didn't come/use His hands miraculously making bread.
• He came so those hands could receive executioner's nails and so His body could be broken for the salvation of the world.
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Those Galileans that day needed a miracle all right but they were seeking the wrong kind.
• They needed the inner-less obvious, but more powerful-miracle that comes from repenting of our sin and claiming Jesus as Lord and Savior
• For in that decision we experience the miracle of a saved soul and a forgiven heart.
• Jesus is the true bread from heaven.
• He is the bread of God. He is the living bread.
• He is the bread of life. He satisfies our every need.
• He satisfies our deepest needs.
• He is to the soul what food is to the body and air is to the lungs.
• He feeds us and fills us.
• He who comes to Jesus will never go hungry, and he who believes in Jesus will never be thirsty.
And this leads to the third truth these hungry people missed that day...
3. They forgot that the essence of human life is spiritual...not physical.
He means that He and He alone is the giver and sustainer of spiritual life.
• Whatever it is that prevents us from all-out surrender to Christ is what we actually love more than Christ.
You recall the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking what he needed to have everlasting life.
The Lord told him to sell all had and give it to the poor.
But the man walked away sad, the Gospel writers tell us, because he had many possessions.
• It is only when we will be satisfied with nothing but Jesus
• And can tolerate the loss of everything but Jesus
• that genuine conversion is accomplished
Jesus Christ provides—always provides—what we need and not always what we want.
• Sometimes what we need is a little adversity.
• Sometimes it will be lack, or loss, or disappointment that will cause us to be grateful for what we’ve been given
• God knows me better than I know me.
• He knows what will move me along in my pilgrimage toward Christlikeness.
• And it is the same with you.
• In feast or famine, we mustn’t boast or complain. We must ask: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
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Like so many people today, these Galileans existed on the animal level.
They were striving to satisfy only their physical desires but famished souls.
• You see, we are not mere animals.
• We are unique beings
• The only creatures in all of God's creation that have been made in His image.
I'm not saying we necessarily LOOK like God...but rather that INSIDE we are like Him.
• God is spirit/unlike rocks/trees/animals/insects
• He has breathed a life-a spirit-into each of us.
• So one thing that separates us from the other creatures of the world is that food doesn't satisfy us.
• We could have all the food in the world and still be hungry.
And I know this is true because you cannot go anywhere on earth today without finding people hungry for something more than a full belly.
There is a restlessness in all of us that craves something more substantial.
As Jesus told Satan when he tempted our Lord to make physical bread with which to satisfy His hunger, Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Matthew 4:4 )
• You and I were designed to require more than mere physical nourishment;
• We were created with the need for spiritual nourishment as well.
• And this sustenance is only found in Jesus Christ...the Bread of Life.
"I am the bread of life," says Jesus.
• He feeds us and fills us and satisfies us.
• But this does not happen automatically.
• You know the saying: "You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make it drink."
• All the water in the world does no good if the horse refuses to guzzle what is in front of it.
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These hungry Galileans missed this truth and today people make the same mistake.
They look in all the wrong places to satisfy their inner hunger for something more.
That day on the shores of Galilee Jesus was trying to get those people to understand that there are more important hungers in life and these can only be satisfied in relationship with Him.
■there is the hunger for truth
JESUS IS THE TRUTH, the answer to all of life's questions.
■there is the hunger for life
JESUS ALONE CAN GIVE MEN LIFE, abundant, eternal life.
■there is the hunger for love
JESUS alone can give us that love that outlasts even death.
He alone can satisfy our spiritual hunger for He alone is the BREAD OF LIFE...
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The best decision I ever made was asking Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.
• He changed my life! He forgave my sins.
• Now I know God put me on this earth to bring people closer to Him.
• Now I know that no matter what happens to me in this world, I’m going to be with God in the next world.
• I feel loved. I feel accepted.
• I feel I’m right where God wants me to be.
And in verse 35, Jesus says “I am the good stuff!
• We need Him every single day of our lives.
• We need His blood, we need His righteousness
• We need His grace, we need His HELP!
• Jesus says “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.”
He’ll never turn us away. He’s not going to say,
“You didn’t go to Sunday school when you were a kid. I can’t accept you. I’m sorry.”
That’s not going to happen.
• Jesus says in verse 37, “All that the Father gives me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away.”
We are God’s gift to Jesus.
• And so when we come to Christ, he’s going to say,
• “I’m so glad you’re here!
• I’m so glad you came back to me!
• Your sins are forgiven!
• Receive the gift of eternal life!”
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Some of you have attended church for years.
But you’ve never made a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
You’ve never said, “I want to experience the bread of life!
• I want the assurance of knowing that my sins are forgiven!
• I want to have a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ!”
• I want to give you a chance to reach up to the One who’s been reaching down to you.
• I want to give you a chance to invite Jesus into your life.
How many of you are ready to invite Christ into your life?
How many of you are ready to have a personal relationship with God?
How many of you are ready to make the most awesome decision of your life?
Invitation
When Jesus revealed Himself as the one and only Bread of Life that day many of His followers left.
In verse 60 they said, This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?
Verse 66 it says, From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.
What about you?
Can you accept this HARD TEACHING that Jesus is the only way to satisfy your hunger for abundant life?
Will you turn and walk away from Jesus or will you embrace Him as Savior and Lord.
You know, the greatest miracle God does, the highest demonstration of His power is seen when, through His bloodshed on the cross, He forgives our sin, saves us and redeems us.
He waits to perform that miracle in you this morning.
We invite you to make this and any other decision public by walking forward and sharing that decision with me.
You may be a Christian looking for a church home and feel God guiding you to become a part of this church.
However God is leading we invite you to respond now as we stand and sing.
