And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35
As we come to the Gospel of John in the New Testament, we find seven “I AM” titles for Jesus.(I am the bread of life (6:35), I am the light of the world (8:12), I am the door (10:7), I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14), I am the resurrection and I am the life (11:25), I am the way the truth and the life (14:6) and I am the true vine (15:1).) And these titles speak to us about how Jesus is God, the great I AM, Jehovah, the Lord. He who revealed Himself to Moses and to His people in the Old Testament, has come to earth. Jesus is God incarnate the great I AM.
Jesus is not only God with us, but He is all that we need. He is the all-sufficient one. He is Light in the darkness. He is a Shepherd to lead and feed and guide us. Whatever we need, He is.
Now in ancient times and still in many parts of the world, bread is considered a basic staple for sustaining life. People made it every day, fresh bread, and it was an essential part of their diet. They couldn’t live without it. It was a necessity. You’ve heard the phrase “bread and butter.” That means what’s your main source of sustenance. Well, in the Scripture, bread points to our basic spiritual needs—what we can’t live without, what is necessary to sustain life. It also points to God’s provision for our needs and God’s presence to fill us and sustain us.
The first mention of bread in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 3 where God says to Adam that one of the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit is that the ground will be cursed. There would be pain and labor and hardship and sorrow and toil. And He says, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”- Genesis 3:19. In other words, it’s going to be hard work to just support yourself, to sustain yourself as a result of sin.
Then you remember how in Exodus chapter 16 as the Israelite came out of Egypt and were led by God into the wilderness, how they grumbled against Moses and grumbled against God. And they said, “When we were in Egypt, we had meat and we ate bread to the full. You have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (v. 3). They were so focused on their basic physical needs, and they grumbled when those needs didn’t meet.
And so God says in verse 4 of Exodus 16: “You want bread? Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day. Exodus 16:4. God so graciously provided bread for His people. They called it “manna.” And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” Exodus 16:12.
Daily for the next forty years, God sent this manna from heaven, bread from heaven until they reached the Promised Land. And that manna, that bread from heaven was a daily reminder that Jehovah was their Source. He was their Provider, and they were dependent on Him to meet their needs.
Then we come to the Tabernacle in the Book of Exodus. Bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, those loaves are called the Showbread. In our more modern translations it’s translated literally the Bread of the Presence. The Bread of the Presence. The table of the Showbread, the table of the Presence of God. And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always. Exodus 25:30.(Lev.24:6) It was a picture. Those loaves were a picture of God’s desire to have fellowship, communion with His people and that He was their nourishment that they needed His presence to live each day.
Now bread in the Old Testament was intended to point us to Jesus. Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 6, let’s begin in verse 2. "Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased." They saw the miracles, the signs that Jesus did. And then verses 5–13, is the story of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus does yet another miracle.
Actually, there were probably about 20,000 people there, when we add in wives and children. And Jesus did this miracle of providing food for the crowd. They ate, & filled and there were twelve baskets of bread left over. I wonder if that is a connection to the twelve loaves in the tabernacle, the bread of the presence of God.
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. John 6:26. This crowd had first followed Jesus, as we read early in the chapter, for the miracles. Then they had followed Him for the meal—the bread. But this is a crowd of curious people, not converted people. They were impressed with Jesus, but they weren’t ready to invest their lives with Jesus. They wanted Jesus for what they could get from Him and what He could do for them. By the way, unfortunately, that’s the way a lot of churches have been built in our modern era. Sensational programs, activities, celebrities, anything to draw a crowd.
But Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” - John 6:27
Here, Jesus didn’t say, don’t work for a living. In the Scripture we can see 2 Thessalonians 3:10 “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” But what He does mean is don’t let temporary things, such as food, bread, stuff, dominate your attention or steal your affection. Don’t work for those things.
Are you satisfied to have your physical and your temporal needs and ignoring the eternal needs of your soul? Maybe satisfied to meet your children’s temporal physical needs. But are you paying more attention to the issues of their hearts?
Jesus then said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:32–33
The Bread of God is a person. It’s Jesus. And Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament type of the Bread of the Presence, the manna from heaven. That manna was temporary bread. It perished every twenty-four hours. It would be spoiled the next day. It didn’t last. But it pointed to the Bread that lasts forever, to Jesus.
Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always. John 6:34. This is a good prayer. I love it. The human heart there is a spiritual hunger. It reminds us of the Samaritan woman who said to Jesus, “Give me this living water so I won’t thirst again.” (see John 4) There’s this longing in the human heart to have that which is eternal.
“And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
Jesus is claiming to be the one and only source and sustainer of life. He’s saying, “You can’t live without Me. I am absolutely essential—not an optional or a category of your life.” He is not one of many religions. He is exclusive, the one and only Bread of Life. And He said, “Receiving Me is necessary for eternal life, just as receiving bread is necessary for sustaining physical life.” He is the living Bread who gives life to those who believe in Him.
The Jews then complained (grumbled) about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” John 6:41–42.
In the Old Testament. Before and after God sent this manna from heaven, the Jews grumbled. They murmured at Moses. They grumbled at God when He sent this manna from heaven. And here now, they’re grumbling when Jesus claims to be the bread sent by God from heaven. Why were they grumbling? Because they knew that He was making Himself equal with God. And they considered that claim blasphemous.
You see this contest going on between Jesus and the Pharisees over and over again through the gospels. They did not and they would not believe in Jesus. And that’s exactly what makes people angry today when we say that Jesus is the only way—the only way to have eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Jesus’ just saying it over and over again. From verses 47 to 58. “It’s all about Jesus. He is the Life. You may not believe in Him but He is Life, the bread of Life.”
The bread that God provided to sustain His people physically in the Old Testament. But it could not make them live forever because the wages of sin is death. But that bread in the Old Testament, that manna, that Bread of the Presence was intended to point out to the living Bread who gives us spiritual, eternal life.
In our communion service, we have to eat or partake of Christ, the Bread of Life. That means to come to Him, to believe in Him, to cease relying on ourselves for eternal life, to acknowledge that there is no other way to live, to acknowledge that He is our daily bread, our sustenance, our life, our nourishment, our provision, to feed on Him. And as we feed on Jesus the Living Word, the Bread of Life we become like Him. We’re changed into His likeness.
Do you long for more of Jesus? Do you hunger for more of Him? Do you feel your need for “daily bread”? Not just on Sundays, but every day? Or are you satisfied to be entertained with religion, but not to feed on Jesus?
Do you remember how the Jews in the Old Testament had to gather that manna daily? That’s how often we need Him. We need to feed on Him and His Word daily by faith, and so we pray, “Give us this day our daily Bread. Give me Jesus. Give me His Word. I have to have it to live.”
Now, just as a reminder, as we close, and that is this. For us to have that eternal life, Jesus, the Bread of Life, had to be broken and die. Remember the feeding of 5000, how He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and then the disciples gave the bread to the crowds.
And then at the Last Supper we read: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body. (Matt. 26:26). A picture of what was to happen within just a matter of hours as His body would be broken there on Calvary so that the hunger of the world could be fed. Amen.
