I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE – ALL YOU EVER NEED IN THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT - PART 1
Our studies in these powerful sayings of the Lord Jesus continue with the next one, and one so necessary – I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.
We will turn to John’s Gospel chapter 6 for our message on I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.
THE SETTING
Jesus said of Himself, “I am the Bread of Life” come down from heaven. Firstly, it is necessary to look at the setting for this. Jesus had just miraculously fed the people from the loaves and the fish, and out of that event this verse follows – {{John 6 v 14 “Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world.”}} As in all these eventful scenarios, there is a hero/celebrity worship mentality. We see it especially these days we live in, and particularly in the United States, so the people came to take Him by force, but the Lord retired to the mountain, no doubt to pray, and to be in silence with His Father. Not long after, He met with His disciples on the sea, again in trouble on the water (they seemed to have a habit of doing that).
The Apostle John records what happened a little later – {{John 6 v 22 The next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea, saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. John 6:23 There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. John 6:24 When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. John 6:25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. John 6:27 Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal.”}}
That was the crowd Jesus spoke to, this group, with their ulterior motives. The Lord did not beat around the bush. He put His finger on their motives straight away in verse 26. With the feeding of the multitude fresh in their minds, the crowd said, John 6 v 31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” Maybe they were hinting the Lord could do the same for them, and keep them fed. After all, 40 years is not a bad time for free food. Now there is much hypocrisy in this statement, because God gave them the manna indeed, but the people of Moses time despised the manna after a while, and craved for something else. I will speak about this later on.
Jesus replied to their statement with this – {{John 6 v 32-33 Jesus therefore 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, for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”}} The Lord moves the focus away from physical bread to Himself, the true Bread who has come from heaven. Jesus was the True Bread sent by the Father. Having dull ears, their minds were still lingering on physical bread, on the body things of the world, and not on spiritual issues. They could only understand all this in physical terms to satisfy their own appetite, for the natural man does not understand the things of God, hence their response – {{John 6 v 34 They said therefore to Him, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.”}}
Physical appetites were their concern, not spiritual appetites. They had no understanding, so the Lord told them plainly what the position was – {{John 6 v 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life”. He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”}} That then is our great I AM for this next study.
We must move to finish the setting. The next verse reveals their stubborn hearts and their refusal to believe. “Don’t give me that religious stuff,” we could almost hear them saying. Nevertheless, the Lord witnessed to the message of the gospel and continued, {{John 6 v 36 “I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.”}} Then Jesus finished the discussion with these people with some verses that help open up what He meant by the comment, “I am the bread of life”. ? {{John 6 v 38-40 “for I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me, and 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. This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I Myself, will raise him up on the last day.”}}
THE EXPANSION OF THE BREAD OF LIFE - “I am the bread of life”.
What does Jesus mean by the statement, “I am the bread of life?”
POINT 1. Bread begins as wheat (or some other grain). Wheat results from the sowing after which the seeds grow and develop. When grains of wheat are sown into the ground, they die to themselves, and in doing so, they spring up into a great harvest. Then the wheat is milled/crushed to become flour. The flour is made into dough, and then it is baked in a bread oven, enduring the heat of the furnace to produce the loaves of bread.
The purpose of bread is to sustain our physical life in our earthly stay. Now all that parallels the work of Christ. He was the grain of wheat that fell into the ground, and died, and in springing up in resurrection, produced a great harvest of saved souls. He was crushed by our sins and underwent the fierce flames of God wrath, “in the oven of God’s wrath”, we could say. He has thus become, in the fullest measure, The Bread of Life that will sustain eternal life for all eternity.
The Father sent the Son into the world to be crushed by our load of sin and to suffer the holy and righteous penalty for sin that he might gain a glorious harvest of redeemed ones. The Son answered the Father’s call – “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” (prophetic, although the initial application was to Isaiah). The Son replied, “Here am I. Send Me”. Heb. 10 v 5-7 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.’” The Lord came as the grain of wheat to fall into the ground and die, but the harvest was ahead of Him and He endured the cross, despising the shame and suffering. Yes, it was the Father who sent the true bread from heaven, and the True Bread came as the Bread of Life.
POINT 2. That Bread of Life who came down from heaven is for men to eat, to partake of the heavenly food of life. It has two applications to us.
(A). THE BREAD FOR SALVATION
The first one is that Christ is the bread we eat for eternal life. Jesus used that symbol about Himself, and it means partaking of the Lord Jesus in salvation. If a man is not prepared to surrender himself to the Lord in repentance, and to believe on the Lord for personal salvation, then he does not eat of that Bread. In other words, he rejects eternal life. In receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, you identify with what changed the wheat into bread, ie. – the crushing heat and the fire of the oven in judgement for your sins. It was the fire of Calvary that opened the way for the Bread of Life to become your salvation.
I am going to share a couple of verses from Isaiah that really reveal this point. The first is {{Isaiah 52 v 14 in two versions - (Holman) “Just as many were appalled at You - His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being (ESV) As many were astonished at you - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.”}} This word for “marred” and “disfigured” means so defaced or destroyed, that He no longer retained the appearance of man, or as one commentator described, “no longer the aspect of a man.” When He bore our sins on the cross – or as Isaiah puts it – {{“He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed,”}} then in that ordeal of Calvary, his face was so contorted that he was not recognisable as a human being. That was the fire of Calvary, the wheat being crushed to produce the finest flour to make the bread of life.
The second application –
(B). THE BREAD FOR CHRISTIAN SUSTENANCE
We come to the second application of the Bread of Life. Bread is for our sustenance, but how does this apply to the Lord? Again, it means feeding on Him for the nourishment and strength for the journey. It means being in the closest connection so that we are vitally “partaking of Him”. “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.” He is an inexhaustible supply. I want to take a look at the manna in Exodus as it has relevance here. Manna was God-given, and the resource for the journey.
(a). The manna was the heavenly food – “bread of angels” as the Psalm 78 says – {{Psalm 78:24 “and He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them food from heaven. Psa 78:25 Man did eat the bread of angels. He sent them food in abundance.”}} It was the provision of God provided for God’s people in the journey from bondage to the promised land. We must also be wholly occupied with this food from heaven. Be occupied with the Lord. His spiritual food is eternal and always satisfying.
(b). There was a daily provision of manna to be collected early in the day. The Holy Spirit will minister to us daily from the word. Some find the early morning the best time to do this. For those retired like me, it can be anytime and often. I used to keep finches and when you provide for them you have the feeders there with the seed. Whenever the birds felt hungry they would go to a feeder and eat just enough for the immediate present. On the other hand, those who keep chooks (chickens, hens) in the back yard often take food to them in the morning or twice a day. Whether we be like finches or chooks in regard to spiritual feeding, the most important thing is that we are feeding! The Lord withholds no good thing from us.
(c). The approach to the manna could not be the feast and famine attitude. Take note of the finches in the last application. Hoarding up manna, bred worms; famine meant weakness. So too, must be our feeding of the word of God be. God does not tolerate extremism. We must be sober, moderate members of God’s flock. We can not oscillate from biblical gorging to biblical neglect. What you gained years ago won’t help you if, in the meantime, you have neglected the bible.
(d). On the 6th day, God instructed a double helping be gathered because of the Sabbath on the 7th. On the Friday they were instructed to gather twice as much, for they could not do so on the Sabbath. What does this suggest? We are not bound by the Sabbath and we know from Corinthians that one man may treat another day as the rest, but if we know we might have a hard time being dedicated to an exact bible study time and reading time because of travel, work, or anything else, maybe we can devote more time when we have that extra time. We are not slaves to legalism but in moderation and careful consideration, we have to plan our lives with the help of the Lord.
[[Again this message will be split into two PARTS, otherwise I consider it is too large for SERMON CENTRAL to follow it all. That concludes PART 1. PART 2 will follow on from this. God bless you all.]]
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
