Liar, Lunatic or Lord?
Pt. 1 - Bread
I. Introduction
Lie Detector Test
Have you ever dealt with someone who couldn't or wouldn't tell the truth? It is frustrating to say the least. Have you ever dealt with someone who was one fry short of Happy Meal? The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead. They are crazy. Most of us have dealt with folks like this, but have you ever stopped to think that there was a day when people thought these things about Jesus?
Text:
Mark 3:20-21 (NIV)?Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
John 8:48-49 (MSG)
The Jews then said, “That settles it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!” Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me.
John 8:58-59 (NIV)
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
The very family of Jesus and the religious leaders of the day, after hearing Jesus' claims about Himself, came to the conclusion that He was either a liar or a lunatic. This guy is coo coo for cocoa puffs! I think the most interesting of these exchanges is the one found in John because at the end Jesus makes this statement . . . "Before Abraham was born, I am!" This leads the religious folks to pick up rocks to kill Jesus on the spot. We hear Jesus' statement there and really never stop long enough to understand what just happened. Jesus uses the same phrase that God used when He spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Remember? Moses sees the bush and begins a discussion with the voice coming from the bush. He finally asks the voice what is your name? The voice, which was God, responds . . . "I am that I am!" In that moment God identifies Himself as I Am! This became so holy and such a point of reference for God that the Jews wouldn't even utter this name for God out loud. So, when Jesus makes this statement the leaders consider it blasphemy. Jesus is saying in no uncertain terms that He is God Himself. So, the leaders pick up rocks to kill this crazy man. However, because of how the Bible is translated, so that we can understand it, we fail to realize that Jesus has already made this same claim 7 other times prior to this exchange. It is those "I am" statements that made the people of His day wrestle with Jesus’ identity. We too need to wrestle with His identity. So, we are going to look at the 7 times that Jesus talks about Himself and like CS Lewis said . . .
"You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
? C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
So, let's begin. Listen to the conversation Jesus has after feeding the 5,000 with a boy's box lunch and after walking on water in the middle of the night. The people He had just fed rush to find Jesus on the other side of the lake. As soon as they arrive, they demand more miracles. The folks "asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, 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. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
and then the crazy claim comes . . .
TEXT: John 6:35 (NIV)
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
We miss that the way Jesus would have said this in His native tongue which was "The bread of life . . . I am!"
This man named Jesus, comes from Bethlehem ... the "House of Bread," and claims to be eternal bread. He states that natural food spoils, rots, ruins and then says that only He is the bread of life!
Is He a liar? Is He a Lunatic?
What is Jesus saying? What does He mean? As was His practice, Jesus uses a natural thing to explain a spiritual truth. He claims that He is bread.
Bread is a staple.
In our day bread is served as an option. The waiter asks, “Would you like some bread?" It is a side. However, in Jesus' day bread was a staple. Bread was necessary. It was part of the main course. In fact, in the wilderness it was THE course until they became tired of the mana, complained and demanded meat. So, Jesus is making the statement here that He is necessary! He is a staple. In fact, Jesus would remind us just how necessary the Bread of Life is when He asks this question in Mark 8:36-37, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" Jesus knew that all the riches of the world don't diminish the need for bread. For the staple. For the necessary spiritual food.
How many of us treat The Bread as optional? How many of us treat the Bread as an unnecessary part of our diet? Only to discover that we are always hungry for something more. Something seems to be missing. We never seem to have enough. The new house didn't fill the void. The new car didn't quiet the hunger pains. Bread is necessary because Jesus also knew that . . .
Bread satisfies.
Back up to Mark 6:27 and Jesus also advises the people, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” These folks understood rotting bread. They knew the reality of gathering mana in the morning only to discover that by the next morning any leftover mana would contain worms and stink. So, with this understanding you would think they would also know that earthly bread could not satisfy. But here they are after Jesus has fed them with the contents of a boy's lunch box seeking earthly bread that couldn't and wouldn't satisfy their spiritual hunger.
The same people who had seen signs were hungry for more signs of His power. But Jesus’ miracles were always to prove a point. He didn’t do them arbitrarily. These folks weren’t getting the message. Instead of seeking to apply His teaching to their lives, they responded by asking for more displays of His power. Jesus knew that miracles wouldn't satisfy our hunger for God. Only a personal relationship with the Bread of Life will.
As Robert Capon wrote, “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 was trying to show them that what they wanted wasn't what they needed. He is trying to show them that their appetite was misplaced. Signs wouldn't satisfy. Only He could satisfy. Earthly mana would have to be gathered and gained again. Instead, Jesus is presenting them with satisfying, life giving spiritual bread. "Very truly I tell you, 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. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
How many of us are trying to find satisfaction in everything else but Jesus? How many of us are trying to find satisfaction in our job, our relationships, activities, our stuff only to wake up famished day after day? Full but not fulfilled!
Jesus knew that the bread satisfies and also that . . .
Bread sustains.
Bread not only fills it also fuels. So, without it you are empty and have no power for life. Jesus is making the claim that He alone sustains us! In fact, He goes on to say, in John 6:58, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” The Bread of Life sustains us.
Too many of us feed on things that fill us, but don’t fuel us. Too many of us are consuming empty calories . . . spiritually.
Paul came to grips with this truth. So, in Acts 17 he boldly stands up and clearly declares about Jesus, "In Him we live and move and have our being." Think about that statement. If in Him we live and move and have our being, then out of Him we don’t. We are not sustained, and we are not fueled without Him.
I see a lot of you that are busy, but I don’t see you getting bread. I see some of you that are overwhelmed, but I don’t see you with Bread. I see you stressed out, but I don’t see you with bread. It is The Bread that sustains us.
Jesus reveals the sustaining power of the Living Bread. He is talking to a woman at a well when His disciples come back from obtaining natural food and say, "Rabbi you need to eat." Jesus responds that "He has food that they know nothing about." “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." Jesus is sustained because He is in relationship with His Father.
Maybe the reason that we don’t feel sustained, don’t feel strong is because we don’t have any bread. What are you looking to? Running to? Turning to? To sustain you? If an intimate relationship with Jesus, which in turn gets us into relationship with The Father, isn’t what sustains us, then we have made Him a liar or a lunatic and we certainly haven’t made Him Lord.
I came to tell you today that there are no bread substitutes. Nothing is as necessary as Jesus. He is the staple of a meaningful life. I came to tell you that only Jesus satisfies. I came to tell you that only Jesus sustains us!
Do I have any bread connoisseurs in the house today who would testify that only Jesus satisfies? Only Jesus sustains? Is there anybody in the house today that has tasted and discovered that the Lord is good? Has anyone tasted the Bread of Life and found that it fills you and fuels you?
We must conclude that Jesus is Lord. He and He alone can solve our hunger . . . whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
The old hymn may say it best . . .
The world may try to satisfy
That longing in your soul.
You may search the wide world over
But you'll be just as before.
You'll never find true satisfaction
Until you've found the Lord,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
If you could have the fame and fortune,
All the wealth you could attain.
Yet, you have not Christ within,
Your living here would be in vain.
There'll come a time when death will find you,
Riches cannot help you then.
So, come to Jesus, only He can satisfy.
Only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
Yes, only He can change your heart
And make you whole.
He'll give you peace you never knew,
Sweet joy and love and Heaven, too.
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
If you already know Jesus, then the question is are you treating Him as necessary or optional? Are you finding satisfaction in Him? Are you finding your sustenance in Him?
Or if you are here today and you are still hungry, then in order to be filled you must wrestle with His identity. If He is who He said He is, then only He can satisfy and sustain you when you make Him Lord!
