Good morning! It is great to be back. We had an excellent vacation in New Brunswick, and had no problem coming or going at all. After all these months, it was great to be home.
Before I left, we had just wrapped up a ten week series on the letter to the Philippians, which means that it is time to start something new. And I am really excited about this new series that we are beginning this week called I AM. Throughout the course of his ministry, Jesus made 7 I AM statements in the gospel of John that relate to his character, his divinity, and his mission. We are going to spend the summer studying these statements, and learning more about the nature of Jesus.
I am especially excited for this series because we will not be doing it alone! We are partnering this series with the South Range Christian Church in southern Nova Scotia. I’ll be studying each week with Josh Stevenson, who is the minister there. So essentially you’ll be getting two heads studying for the price of one, which is a great deal! And as we will both be bringing different perspectives in our sermons, I also recommend that if you want to dig further throughout the week, you should check out his sermons as well, which I can help you get connected to if you are interested.
If you’ve ever heard anyone talk about the statement “I Am” in a sermon or study before, you will know that it is a phrase that holds deep spiritual significance. If you HAVEN’T heard this before, I think you will find it really interesting, because it is not just a phrase, it is actually the name of God.
We have many names for God. In our society, we most often just refer to him as.... God. But as we know, God is just a generic term in English. When we say God, we use it as a name. But I can also use it as a description, we worship the god of Abraham. Others worship other god’s. It is a generic term.
There have been many names used to refer to our God over the generations. Elohim (Creator), Adonai (Lord), El Shaddai (Almighty), and many others. However, there is one name that God takes on himself when he appeared to Moses in the burning bush. It is a name that Jews to this day consider too holy to utter, and to use the name in Jesus’ day was considered blasphemy, as they considered using it to be taking his name in vein. Every time in your Bible that this word is used, it is translated as LORD, and usually with all capital letters. Because it was considered too holy to speak or write.
In Exodus, the NIV translates this name as “I AM Who I AM” Moses is told to tell the Israelites that “I AM” has sent him. It is a very peculiar name in Hebrew. It consists of four Letters, which translate to the English letters YHWH. It is a tricky name to translate to English. For a long time we thought that it was pronounced Jehovah, because there was no letter Y in Latin, so they replaced it with a J. However, through early Greek and Hebrew translations from the period, they have been able to determine the name was actually pronounced Yahweh.
Because Hebrew is such a peculiar language, there are multiple translations to be taken from this word, and they all are applicable. It can be taken to mean I Am, I Was, and I Will Be. The longer phrase, I AM Who I AM, can be translated as I Will Be With You, but also can be translated as I Am Without Equal.
I am telling you all of this, because as we begin this new series, I want you to fully understand the importance of these statements. With every one, Jesus not only reveals something about his character and mission, he claims to be God. Anyone who tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God does not know what they are talking about. It is why after Jesus said “Before Abraham was, I AM!”, the Jews picked up rocks to stone him to death. In that culture, he was making a clear claim: He is God.
So we’ve shifted from expository teaching in Philippians to Narrative in the Gospels, which means it is extra important for us to know where we are in the story, because this is in fact a story. We are reading John 6:25-59 this week. So let me give a little context on what was happening the previous day before our passage begins: Jesus had been preaching to a crowd near Bethsaida, and he had fed 5000 people there miraculously. They tried to make him king by force, so he fled, and his disciples had gotten into a boat and started crossing the sea of Galilee. Halfway across the sea, Jesus came to them walking on water. He got in the boat, and they came to shore in the town of Capernaum.
Meanwhile, a bunch of people from Tiberias had come over to Bethsaida looking for Jesus, but he wasn’t there anymore. So the entire crowd got into their boats and ALSO crossed over to Capernaum searching for him.
When they got there, they found him in the synagogue, and that is where this story takes place. I have a picture of the synagogue in Capernaum up on the screen. So you can sort of visualize this taking place as we go through this story.
So with that, lets jump in! It’s a longer passage, so we are just going to split it up and go through it piece by piece.
John 6:25–27 (NIV)
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 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.”
This Truly, Truly phrase Jesus uses here is something called the double amen, and it is found throughout the gospel of John. It always announces a critical truth from Jesus to the audience. When he says truly truly, what he has to say is important. And what he says here is an immediate criticism. He IGNORES their question, and hits on the heart of why they are looking for him in the first place: They saw his miracles in Bethsaida, and they had eaten the free meal, and they wanted more. They wanted a show.
But Jesus says they didn’t see the signs. They saw the MIRACLES, but not the signs hidden within the miracles. In John, a sign is something that points beyond the physical reality to the reality of revelation. Signs provided insight into who Jesus is, and they missed it. He says don’t work for things that spoil, work for the food that lasts forever!
John 6:28–34 (NIV)
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
So they 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.”
The crowd was Jewish, so of course they were focused on the works. But the author, John, often plays on the inter playing between working and believing when it comes to salvation. On one hand, you cannot earn salvation by working for it. But on the other hand, faith demands action. Both believing and obeying are parallel ways that a person acknowledges dependence on God. Just as Jesus always responded to God the Father, we are to respond to the Son. The work is to believe. That is how one is saved.
But of course, they completely misunderstood his meaning. Jesus is already talking about salvation. The bread that comes from heaven, the TRUE bread, gives life to the world. But they are still intent on getting a free meal. They demand a miracle to back up his claim, even though most of them had been there for the feeding of the 5000 just the previous day.
John 6:35–40 (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. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Jesus corrects their misunderstanding with our first I AM statement: I Am the Bread of Life. This is a two-pronged answer from Jesus:
He was in fact the bread of life that they were speaking about. Filling stomachs with baked goods was not his concern or intention
If they came to him, they would not HAVE to be concerned about temporary things like what to eat and drink, because they would have the promise of eternal life. As always, he is concerned with the eternal, not the temporary.
The point here is that physical Bread sustains physical life, but Jesus is the bread of SPIRITUAL life. He is the one who sustains and provides spiritual nourishment. Those who come to him for this bread will not be turned away, they will have eternal life.
John 6:41–51 (NIV)
At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 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’?”
“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 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. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Once again, they miss the point, but at least they are starting to focus on the real issue. They get hung up on Jesus saying that he had come down from heaven. We have to remember that this was not a big area, everybody knew everybody. They knew his parents! How could he claim to them that he had come down from heaven?
But he makes a bold claim here that probably ruffled some feathers: Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. This means that if they ACTUALLY know God the Father, they will recognize that Jesus is who he says he is. And if they DON’T accept him, then they must not have truly known him after all.
Then he finally says it: 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.
So remember that they don’t have the full picture like we do. All they know is that this guy is saying that everyone who wants eternal life has to literally eat him. That is what they are hearing.
John 6:52–59 (NIV)
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just 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. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
So instead of clarifying his metaphor, he digs in and even heightens it: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
This was too much for the Jews who were in the crowd. Once again they all interpret him too literally. After he said this, many of his disciples left him, and even the twelve in his inner circle struggled with this teaching, because they didn’t understand yet.
The metaphor here, of course, is that Eating his flesh and drinking his blood equals believing and partaking in a relationship with Jesus. It is of course reminiscent of communion, which we celebrate each week. But to them in that day, it sounded like cannibalism, and so many people left him after he taught this.
So you may have noticed as we were going through this passage that there was a lot of confusion between Jesus and his audience. But the same problems are present for us as they were for them. So what should we take away from this, and what was Jesus trying to get across to them?
The crowd couldn’t see what he was trying to tell them, because they were too focused on earthly things. Jesus said do not work for the food that perishes, but the food which endures to eternal life. But they were chasing miracles, they were chasing a free meal. They were too focused on the literal and physical now, to see that Jesus was talking about their spiritual future. They had blinders on. So how are we focused on the immediate and temporary, instead of our spiritual futures and eternity? Do we have blinders on too?
Jesus told them that he was the bread of life, spiritual bread. To receive it, we have to do two things.
First, we have to believe in him. This is what he describes as the work of God. And if we DO, he will meet our spiritual needs, and he will raise us up on the last day. The crowd was hungry, they wanted more free food. But Jesus says, I AM Here to satisfy, but not your stomachs. I am here to satisfy your souls. But they were more focused on filling their stomachs than their souls. So do we trust Jesus to meet our spiritual needs? Are we allowing him to fulfill our lives?
Second, we have to participate. It is not merely enough to know something is true. What are you going to do about it? Jesus begins by saying that they had to believe, yes. But then he says, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. You have to take part. Those who ate manna in the desert eventually died, but those who partake in Jesus will live forever. Those who join him in his death and resurrection will be with him in eternity. So are we participating in his kingdom? Are we finding our satisfaction and fulfilment in Jesus?
You see, these people were so concerned with temporary worries and pleasures in life, that they weren’t thinking about what truly lasts. They were so focused on the miracles, that they were missing the signs. They were so excited to fill their stomachs with physical bread, that they didn’t realize that they could fill their souls with the Bread of Life, which is Jesus. Jesus is the source of perfect spiritual fulfilment.
So in conclusion, in the words of Jesus, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. The things of this world do not last. We are all chasing signs and wonders. Sometimes, like the crowd that day in the synagogue, we can be guilty of trying to use God like a vending machine in order to get what we want in our pursuit of fulfillment.
But he doesn’t want to give us a free meal, he wants to fill our lives with him. We are chasing things, but Jesus is all we need to sustain our lives. We look for food to nourish our bodies, but he is offering food and nourishment for our souls. He is the source of perfect spiritual fulfilment, he is the bread that gives true life.
As we leave here this week, it’s my hope that day to day, we would turn to him for fulfilment and nourishment, and that we would be ready to share that bread of life with a world that is starving for him.
