JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE
John 6:41-51
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A Pastor told one of his faithful church members, “Mrs. Smith, I appreciate your devotion. You are present at all the services!”
2. Mrs. Smith: “Yes, it’s such a relief, at the end of a long, hard week, to come to church, sit on those soft cushions, and not think about anything for an hour!”
B. TEXT
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They 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 them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[Isa. 54:13] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:41-51
C. THESIS
1. We look at the misconceptions about Jesus, His explanation of how saving faith comes, and His superiority as the Bread of Heaven.
2. The title of this message is “Jesus the Bread of Life.”
I. MISCONCEPTIONS OF CHRIST Vss. 41-42
A. SAD RECEPTION OF THE SON OF GOD
1. Verse 41 says, “They grumbled about him.” One would think that, like Israel in Egypt, when they heard God and visited with Him, they would’ve bowed their heads and worshipped.
2. They got to meet Immanuel – “God with us,” “the Word made flesh,” the Creator of all things, walking among men. Were they grateful? Were they respectful, humbling themselves? No! On the contrary, they quarreled with Him about what He said.
3. The reason for their grumbling is clear: they doubted His divine origin. “How is it that he says, ‘I came down from heaven?’” They’d heard of angels coming down from heaven, but never of a man.
4. They overlooked the proofs he’d given them – His miracles and His operation in the word of knowledge (knowing things that only could have been revealed to Him by God). To the casual observer He was obviously much more than a man.
B. REASONS OTHERS DEPRECIATE JESUS CHRIST?
1. Many think that Jesus is just another prophet – a mystic – more in touch with the spiritual realm than the practical world. Others see Him as a good example, but no more.
2. Still others think of Him as a dead hero, dead for 2,000 years, and so He has no relevance for their lives. Still others think He’s just a myth, the invention of story tellers.
3. Someone has observed, “Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3, yet the influence of Christ's 3-year teaching infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching of the greatest philosophers of all ancient times. As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the greatest genius and the most influential life ever lived on this planet.”
II. JESUS EXPLAINS WHERE SAVING FAITH COMES FROM Vss. 43-46
A. WHERE SAVING FAITH DOESN’T COME FROM
1. IT DOESN’T COME FROM SEEING MIRACLES. Many of those who followed Jesus to Capernaum had seen His miracle of feeding the 5,000 and healing the sick, yet they didn’t believe (John 2:11; 2:23; 7:31; 12:37).
2. FAITH COMES BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD! (Rom. 10:17) Yet a number of those who heard Jesus preach didn’t allow His words to find a lodging in their hearts. So hearing alone doesn’t produce it.
3. IT DOESN’T EVEN COME BY BELIEVING. This sounds like heresy, but it’s actually the teaching of James 2:19; “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” NKJV. James goes on to say belief must be accompanied by “works” or “deeds;” James is referring to OBEDIENCE! If you really believe in Jesus, you’ll obey Jesus. Obedience is the proof of belief.
B. WHERE SAVING FAITH DOES COME FROM
1. WE MUST ALL BE “TAUGHT OF GOD.” The Lord Jesus quotes Isa. 54:13, “All Your [God’s] children shall be taught by the Lord.” God the Father personally undertakes our education, i.e., our preparation for salvation. The Father enlightens our minds, transforms our emotions, and adjusts our wills. He’s schooling us to bring us to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
2. God reveals some things through nature (“general revelation”), but the knowledge of Christ takes more light (“special revelation”). But if we’re God’s genuine children, we must be taught of God!
3. 2NDLY, GOD WORKS UPON OUR WILLS, “DRAWING” US. Don’t you wish that ALL people needed to be saved, was that their minds be “illumined?” But I’ve seen people get a revelation of Christ and walk away, because they didn’t want to pay the price.
4. Our fallen nature has left us with a bent toward rebellion, and a tendency to shy away from the light. Our moral prejudices are so strong that nothing less than a divine power can conquer them. That’s why Jesus said, “NO ONE can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS them” (vs. 44).
5. Matthew Henry says this DRAWING is “not a force put upon the will, whereby the unwilling we are made willing, but a new bias is given to the soul, by which it inclines to God...He that formed the spirit of man within him...knows how to new-mold the soul, and to alter its bent and temper, and make it conformable to himself and his own will, without doing any wrong to its natural liberty. It is such a drawing as it works not only a compliance, but a cheerful compliance: ‘Draw us, and we will run after thee.’”
6. So the work of salvation is assisted by the Father teaching and preparing us to receive Christ and by inclining our hearts so that when we hear the voice of our Lord, we say “yes,” because His will is the very thing we want to do.
7. Conversely, as Jesus pointed out in vs. 44, it’s not at all surprising that people the Father has not (at that time) been drawing, should not be ready to receive Christ.
III. SUPERIORITY OF JESUS AS BREAD OF GOD
When God led the Israelites out of Egypt (carnality), He removed them from consuming the fleshpots of Egypt and put them on a strict diet of purest bread (manna) from Heaven. Notice that this manna wasn’t from earth, but originated from Heaven. THE MANNA REPRESENTS 2 THINGS:
A. THE WORD OF GOD IS OUR MANNA
a. Moses said in Deut. 8:3; “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
b. The Lord Jesus echoed this thought in Matt. 4:4; “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (also Luke 4:4)
B. BUT SUPREMELY, THE MANNA REPRESENTS JESUS
“33Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness….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…34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 35 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….I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:33-35,51.
1. The Lord Jesus made direct allusion to the Manna as representing Himself. He is the life-sustaining substance that gives life to the world. Just like the Israelites gathered the manna every morning, we’re supposed to partake of Christ daily and continually (in digestion). Just as the manna was sweet to the taste, so is Jesus sweet to our souls!
2. Our effort to seek Him out is expected by God, just as it was for the Israelites to seek the manna. Physical food alone won’t sustain us. If we would keep our spirits alive, we must seek out the Manna of Jesus Christ!
C. THEY WEREN’T CONTENT WITH THE MANNA
1. Numbers 11:4-6 says, “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt.... 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’”
2. The Israelites were NOT content with the manna; they wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. This is equivalent to people saying, “Jesus isn’t enough!” People get bored at church; they want their coffee shops, modern architecture, light shows & smoke! Or they want their rituals, candles, and incense braziers.
3. The early church didn’t have any of that and they turned the world upside down! I maintain that all we need is Jesus! When we want more than Jesus we substitute something else in His place.
4. God was NOT pleased with the Israelites’ desire for meat, though He allowed it. God wanted them to have only Manna during the 40 years in the wilderness, just like He only wants us to focus on Jesus for our nourishment.
5. Num. 11:33 says, “But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.”
6. Just like God didn’t want the Rock struck 2X by Moses – because it was a symbol of Jesus – God didn’t want His people eating anything but the Bread from Heaven, Jesus Christ. That Bread is all we need for life!
D. NOTICE THE SUPERIORITY OF JESUS
1. PERMANENT SUPPLY. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). When the Israelites ate the manna Moses provided, they still hungered and thirsted after a while. But there’s such an over-flowing fulness in Christ that it can never be exhausted (John 4:14). He puts an Artesian well of His Spirit inside of us that never runs dry!
2. ETERNAL LIFE. Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” John 6:47-51.
3. Jesus says the Bread He gives will cause us to have eternal life and never die. Dying, here, means not falling under the wrath of God and thus the second death. The first death, physical death, though suffered by believers, is in the end overcome by resurrection. To “live forever” is not only a state of still being alive, for those who go to Hell are still alive. But to “live” forever means to be “happy” forever! Praise God that’s our future!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: JESUS IS THE RICE OF LIFE
1. People in the Middle East can identify with Jesus’ words, “I am the Bread of Life,” because bread is a staple (a main part) of their diets. But people in Asia don’t relate to that symbol, because bread isn’t part of their daily experience.
2. June Fryman says, “When my husband and I lived in Taiwan, [the main staple] was rice...we learned that...rice was their traditional meal accompaniment....If Jesus had been in Asia, He would have said, “I am the rice of life!” [WILMINGTON NEWS JOURNAL; 9.13.18]
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you want that fountain flowing in your life that will never run dry?
2. In some countries there are foods with no nutritional value. They swell the stomachs, but do nothing to bring life to the body. Are you tired of the spiritual substitutes which don’t satisfy? Why don’t you come to Jesus and let Him fill your heart with joy?
3. How many want to make sure of your salvation by making a new commitment to Jesus? PRAYER
