“The Living Bread”: John 6:35-51
Bread is still a staple for human beings in order to survive. In the U.S., most people take bread for granted, going to the grocery store and selecting whatever kind of bread you like. During Jesus’ time, and today in many place of the world, bread is not so easy to acquire. When Jesus revealed Himself as “the Living Bread”, He certainly startled the crowds of His time.
After Jesus had fed the 5,000 with five small barley loaves and two fishes, the next day we read in read John 6:35-51: Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." 42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 "It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."
Jesus’ Words Reveal an Emphatic Declaration
Here is the Son of God who came from Heaven, but born in Bethlehem, “the house of Bread”, exclaiming: “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE!” In the English language, we miss the enormous significance of His declaration: The words “I AM” in the Greek are the first person personal pronoun plus the first person singular of the present tense verb “to be”. The construction is used in John in order to declare Deity, and the usage directly coincides with Ex. 3:14 where God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
In the context of this chapter, the declaration is simply astounding: Jesus had just explained about the manna which had been provided from Heaven to the Israelites. Verses 32 and 33 had been the setting for this declaration: Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."
The people reply: "Lord, (Important Gr. Word, “Kurios”) always give us this bread;" and Jesus replies:”I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.” You cannot possibly miss the intention of Jesus’ powerful words: He is declaring His own eternal Heavenly existence, and it will be one of many announcements of His Divinity and Godhead.
This statement will be used several times in Jesus’ short conversation in order to reiterate with emphasis what He is declaring: First of all, the crowd understood His declaration but would not accept Him AS the Bread from Heaven. Listen to their response in verse 41: Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." A similar reaction is given throughout the world today; People know that Jesus was an exceptional prophet and teacher, but God? That fact people will not accept.
Listen to verse 48; Jesus comes back with this: "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." Jesus is emphatic: I AM this bread in the flesh which has come down from heaven. Without me, you die.
In verses 53-58 He explains it further: 53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
Jesus is saying that coming to Him, and believing in Him is the same as partaking of His flesh and drinking His blood. He is not saying that by partaking of communion or the Lord’s Supper you are saved but by believing into Him and who He is: The Bread which has come down out of Heaven. As surely as the people of Israel died eating “manna”, you will die if you only partake of the physical bread of life”: You must believe that Jesus is the Messiah who has come from Heaven in the flesh in order to shed His blood and give His body as LIFE FOR YOU. There is no LIFE apart from the BREAD OF HEAVEN.
Jesus’ Words explain God’s salvation plan
Jesus’ Words actually explain God’s salvation plan for sinful humanity, not just for the Jews, but you remember that the plan is given first of all to the Jewish people, but they reject it. Jesus is saying that salvation is exclusively IN HIMSELF, the Lord JESUS CHRIST. Salvation did not come by Moses or any other prophet. (You can plug in any prophet’s name, and come up with the same: Salvation only comes through Jesus Christ.) Salvation does not come by Moses or any other means. Salvation from God comes only through Jesus Christ.
Secondly, salvation is by faith alone in this Lord Jesus Christ; if anyone is going to come to Jesus, it is going to be the person who believes in Jesus alone for salvation. It is not going to be faith in Jesus PLUS something else. Salvation comes exclusively by Faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible alone, on account of God’s grace alone, so that God alone receives the Glory.l l
Look closely at verse 35 again: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. The construction of this verse is extremely important to understand since many have misunderstood it. The NASB is an excellent translation because the second half of that verse (he who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst) shows that the person who COMES is he who believes: the stress is on the fact that salvation is by faith. The “HE” is described by the phrase “who comes to me”. The literal translation is “the one coming to (or toward me) by no means hungers and the one believing into (or IN me) by no means will thirst NEVER.” It is the person who comes to Jesus who does not hunger and it is the person who believes in him who does not thirst. When Jesus speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood in verses 53-57, the meaning of that metaphor has already been explained in verse 35.
Salvation is not in seeing but in believing; it is in hungering not in coming. It is very interesting to remember what Jesus said earlier in the very beginning of His ministry in Matthew 5:6. Note that Matthew’s gospel had been written around 25 years before John’s gospel and so his teachings concerning Jesus’ ministry inauguration had circulated after Jesus death and John’s gospel circulated when the church was already being persecuted. Listen: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” The subject of this beatitude of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” would be “those are blessed WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUS, for they shall be satisfied (in other words, they will by no means hunger or thirst again!) Salvation comes to those who see (or behold Jesus), who hear what He is saying, who listen and receive what this one and only unique (the word “BEGOTTEN”) Son of the Heavenly Father says and does, and who believe this Holy One, the LORD Jesus Christ, sent from the Father.
Listen to verses 40 & 44-45: 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (Next week we will look at that phrase “I myself will raise him up on the last day” because it is used 3 times in this chapter.)
Now 44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; (that’s exclusive too!) and I will raise him up on the last day. Listen to verse 45: "It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. (exclusive too: those who HEAR and LEARN)
Remember back in John 1 when we looked at the eternal nature of the Son, that there was never a time when the Son was not in perfect existence and harmony with the Father. We understand that the Triune God has existed from everlasting TO everlasting as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here we see that Salvation is of the Father’s Will from above. He draws people to the person and work of Himself being revealed in the Flesh through Jesus the Son, the Christ, the Anointed One of God, who is LORD OF LORDS and KING of KINGS, the KURIOS, the Lord over all, and that God works His salvation through the Work of the Word of God, the Lord Jesus, and through the written inspired Word of God revealed by His Holy Spirit to men, to give us a written account of God’s History of the World, the total depravity of mankind and their need for a Savior, and how God’s Spirit and the Word are used to bring us to saving faith, to belief in this Great and Glorious God and Savior! We believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.
We have the work of the Father, and of the Son shedding his “blood” and his body (his flesh) and in verse 63, we read: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden they died morally and spiritually; although they did not die physically immediately, their spirits died immediately. They became spiritually dead, separated from the Holy God who had made them. It is only by a new birth from above that men and women who are spiritually dead will come to life. It is only by God’s grace, being drawn by God through the Holy Spirit that dead men and women come to life.
Many people “think” they have “accepted” Jesus, but it has been on THEIR TERMS and not on account of being born again from above. It is only by a spiritual rebirth from God through the person and work of the Lord Jesus that people come to saving faith. Eating and drinking of Jesus is BELIEVING IN JESUS.
Later in John 8: 23-24, Jesus says this: "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am NOT of this world. 24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." SALVATION IS IN BELIEVING, it is by God-given faith that you see, hear, listen, believe and follow Jesus. The multitudes saw Jesus, heard what He said, saw His miracle and signs, they ate the physical food which He provided, but utterly refused to accept Him as the Christ sent from God who had come to be the Bread of Life for them.
They witnessed the sign of the changing of water into wine, they saw Him heal the sick, they heard Jesus’ own testimony, they heard John the Baptist’s testimony, they ate the physical food Jesus provided but they still grumbled about Jesus because He said: “I am the bread of life that came down from Heaven.”
Jesus gave the bread of His flesh for the life of the world; He who BELIEVES has everlasting life. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Jesus. If anyone “eats” or believes of this bread, he will live forever. And this is the will of the Father who sent the Son: The Son will lose NONE of all that the Father has given Him but will raise them up at the last day! What a glorious God and Savior, to save us and to continue to preserve us and keep us, until He completes His Work IN us.
We have a responsibility to fulfill on account of His grace and love to us: We are called to be His disciples, His followers, and to share the life giving message of the Bread of Life to those whom the Father is drawing to the Son. Let us be diligent in honoring Him and the Life to which He has called us. To God alone be the Glory. Amen.
I. Jesus’ Words reveal an Emphatic declaration: “I AM the Bread of Life.” (Jn. 6:35)
A. “I AM” declares deity coinciding with Ex. 3:14 (God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,
'I AM has sent me to you.'")
B. The context supports Jesus’ Eternal Heavenly existence. (Manna came from Heaven & 45-51)
C. “The Bread of Life” announcement is the first of many Divine statements.
D. There is Life in the Bread from Heaven. (6:35,41,48,51,53-58)
II. Jesus’ Words explain God’s salvation plan.
A. Salvation is exclusively in Jesus: Not by Moses, any other means or man.
B. Salvation is by faith: He who comes is he who believes.
C. Salvation is not in seeing but in believing, in “hungering” not in coming.(Matt. 5:6)
D. Salvation comes to those who see, hear, listen and believe the Holy One Sent from God. (vs. 40, 45)
E. Salvation is of the Father’s Will from above. (also 6:44,57,70 and Spirit in vs. 63)
F. Salvation is in believing (eating and drinking of Jesus=believing [vs.53-58])
G. Salvation means that we are preserved by Him unti
