The Bread of Life
O LORD, our LORD, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens!
You are our exodus from slavery! our Salvation! and our glorious freedom! Our true temple is built and is our bread without yeast, our Sanctification and our Salvation.
To God be the Glory!
In our reading today in the book of Ezra, just five weeks after the dedication of the second temple, the Passover was held. The Passover spoke of the death of Christ, our Passover, who was offered for us.
When they gathered around the Passover, they were gathering around the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God.
So, they celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days and there was great joy throughout the land. But what was that Festival?, and why the unleavened bread? What do you think?
Looking up to Jesus! Setting the stage for the wonderful work of Jesus. Looking up to Jesus.
Look back at Exodus 12:6 –hundreds of years before:
“Take special care of these lambs until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month.
Then each family in the community must slaughter its lamb. 7They are to take some of the lamb’s blood and smear it on the top and sides of the doorframe of the house where the lamb will be eaten.
8That evening everyone must eat roast lamb with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.
The exodus! the bread without yeast! the Salvation,
the freedom!
The festival of Passover was to be an annual holiday in honor of the night when the Lord “passed over” the homes of the Israelites. The Hebrews followed God’s instructions by smearing the blood of a lamb on the doorframes of their homes. That night the firstborn son of every family that did not have blood on the doorframes was killed.
The lamb had to be killed in order to get the blood that would protect them.
(This foreshadowed the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, who gave his blood for the sins of all people.)
Inside their homes, the Israelites ate a meal of roast lamb, bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
Unleavened bread, bread with no yeast-the bread signifying Christ, Christ with no yeast,
Christ with no sin, but able to take all of ours.
1 cor 10:17, “for we being many are one bread,
and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” And we all eat from one loaf,
showing that we are one body.
18And think about the nation of Israel;
all who eat the sacrifices are united by that act.
The idea of unity and fellowship with God through
eating a sacrifice was strong in Judaism and Christianity as well as in paganism.
In Old Testament days, when a Jew offered a sacrifice,
he ate a part of that sacrifice as a way of restoring his unity with God, against whom he had sinned (Deuteronomy 12:17-
18You must eat this in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose.
Similarly, Christians participate in Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice at the Lord’s Table when they eat the bread and drink from the cup, symbolizing his body and blood.
Matt 25:26 26 _ As they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread and asked God’s blessing on it.
Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it and eat it, for this is my body.”
John 6:35 35 _ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again.
Those who believe in me will never thirst.
36But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 _ However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.
38For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want.
39 _ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me,
but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day.
40 _ For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life—that I should raise them at the last day.”
You know, people eat bread to satisfy physical hunger and to sustain physical life. We can satisfy spiritual hunger and sustain spiritual life only by a right relationship with Jesus Christ. No wonder he called himself the Bread of Life.
But bread must be eaten to sustain life, and Christ must be invited into our daily walk to sustain spiritual life.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life:
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst [John 6:35].
Christ is the manna. He is the One who came down from heaven and gave His life for the world that we might have life. That is salvation.
We will also see that He is the Bread that we are to feed upon constantly so that we might grow spiritually.
After all, manna was miracle food, and it was thrilling.
All of y’all remember how the Israelites were sustained on manna in the wilderness for years.
They did get a little tired of it. “Where’s our meat, garlic, leaks, and onions?”
Here’s what they said, “What’s for breakfast? Manna. What’s for lunch? Manna. What’s for supper?
More Manna!” They developed a few recipes to vary the fare: they ground it like flour and they made Manna-pie, Manna-sauce, Manna-cake, Manna-cotti!
Yes, I suppose that they were the inventors of Manna-cotti, and we still enjoy that last dish to this very day!
But, when the children of Israel finally got over into the Promised Land, they were given the “old corn of the land” which symbolizes the Word of God.
They didn’t like that either, since it convicted them of sin.
And still, lots of people don’t like the “old corn.”-
but as Jesus reminded the devil, people need more than bread for their life, they must feed on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
John 6:39 _ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me,
but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day.
40 _ For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life—that I should raise them at the last day.”
“You want bread? Well, I am the Bread of Life.
All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me;
and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
This one verse typifies both election and free will.
Election: All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me.
Free Will: Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.
The Father gives men to Christ, but men have to come. And the ones that come are the ones whom the Father gives to Him.
You and I are down here, and we don’t see into the machinery of heaven.
We don’t know how God runs that computer of election, but I know that He has given to you and to me a free will and we have to exercise it.
Because Charles Spurgeon preached a “whosoever will” gospel, someone said to him, “If I believed like you do about election, I wouldn’t preach like you do.”
Spurgeon’s answer was something like this,
“If the Lord had put a yellow stripe down the backs of the elect, I’d go up and down the street lifting up shirttails, finding out who had the yellow stripe, and then I’d give them the gospel. But God didn’t do it that way.
He told me to preach the gospel to every creature that ‘whosoever will may come.’”
Jesus says, “and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
So, friends, you can argue about election all you want to, but you can come. And if you come,
He’ll not cast you out.
Someone may ask, “You mean that if I’m not the elect I can still come?” My friend, if you come, you will be the elect. How tremendous this is!
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me [John 6:38].
How wonderful it is that the will of God is for you to come to Him.
Jesus came down from heaven because “the Son of man must be lifted up.” He came to do the Father’s will in that, and it is the Father’s will that you be born again.
But you will have to come to Him, friend;
that is the only way. You must come to the Lord Jesus by faith.
And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life, at the last [John 6:39]. ----------------
Well, you may have heard the term predestination.
Don’t worry about it. It applies only to the saved.
It means just exactly what He is saying here.
When a person accepts Christ, he is justified; and just as surely as he is justified, he is going to be glorified.
When Jesus starts out with one hundred sheep,
He’s going to come through with one hundred sheep.
He will not lose one. That is what this means.
Everyone who believes and receives Christ has everlasting life and will be raised up again at the last day.
The Jews then murmured at him, because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? [John 6:41–42].
You see, He taught that He was God and that He came down from heaven. Here, He is teaching His Virgin Birth.
There are those who say the Lord Jesus never taught that He was virgin born. But, what do you think He is saying here, people?
The Jews understood what He was saying.
They asked how this could be when they knew His father and His mother. Well, it’s by the Virgin Birth.
As the angel told Mary, it was the Holy Spirit who conceived that “holy thing” in Mary (see Luke 1:35).
“I came down from heaven”!!!—
“Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe.”
He came down from heaven’s glory;
He stepped down from the throne to ascend the cross for you and for me. He did it by way of the Virgin Birth.
The Virgin Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christmas story.
Anyhow, those Jews got the message immediately and asked, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph”?
They thought they knew His father and His mother,
but He is not the son of Joseph.
He came down from heaven.
46 Only I, who was sent from God, have seen the Father.
47 _ “I assure you, anyone who believes in me already has eternal life. 48Yes, I am the bread of life!
The One who has seen the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. “He who believes on Him has everlasting life.”
It can’t be said any more clearly.
48Yes, I am the bread of life! 49Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died.
50However, the bread from heaven gives eternal life to everyone who eats it.
51 _ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live.”
He came down to this earth: “the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). He is going to the cross to lay that human life down there as a sacrifice to pay for your sins and my sins. Friend, when you partake of that, that is, when you accept that, you are saved.
Someone may say, “Oh, that’s so vivid and so strong it just might be wrong! That’s what they said in that day, too.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? [John 6:52].
They were thinking of His literal flesh, of course.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you [John 6:53].
Friends, this is an amazing statement.
It means to partake of Him spiritually, which is more real than a physical partaking.
Our Lord is preparing these men for that Last Supper and the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
What He is saying is that He is going to give His life.
In that Upper Room He made it very clear that the blood is the symbol of life.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood … ” (Lev. 17:11).
God had taught the Israelites that truth from the very beginning when He called them out of the land of Egypt.
There at Mount Sinai Moses gives them this great axiom, “the life of the flesh is in the blood.”
The life of the flesh is in the blood.
And Jesus is giving His life.
He will shed His blood upon the cross and give His life.
Salvation is by accepting and receiving Him in a most intimate way.
This is the basis for the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Let us understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Master himself in order to provide a means whereby we might uniquely demonstrate our Christian faith,
hope and love to the audiences of heaven, earth and hell until Jesus comes again.
It has been well stated that life’s most significant truths are not spoken, but are acted out.
In the communion service we act out what we believe.
We break the bread. And we celebrate our own Festival of Unleavened Bread and there is great joy in our souls, for our Lord has come, and invited us to Heaven with Him!
The Breaking of Bread is an Act of Obedience which shows a Willingness to Observe the Ordinance, a Worthiness to Observe the Ordinance, and a Watchfulness to Observe the Ordinance..
The breaking of the bread is also an act of Remembrance.
“This do,” said Jesus, “in remembrance of me.”
The ordinance was not to be a mere memorial of an historical event, but a sacramental opportunity for “calling to mind” the Lord Jesus Himself.
Both in the Gospels and in 1 Corinthians 11, the breaking of bread is associated with giving thanks.
Deep thankfulness to God does, to a certain degree, find expression in “the fruit of our lips’ ( Hebrews 13:15 ).
But mostly, thanksgiving and adoration are activities of the spirit. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” ( John 4:24 ).
The Soul is Given over to Contemplation.
“ This do in remembrance of me” ( 1 Corinthians 11:24 , 25 ). We have already observed that adoration calls to mind the Person of Christ.
The deep reality of His death will necessarily occupy the heart at such a moment,
but there should be, at the same time, the full recognition of Christ Himself as the Living One.
If our worship is “in spirit and in truth,” then Jesus will be our only focus. ( Luke 24:30).
Well, as they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God’s blessing on it, broke it,
then gave it to them.
31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
Were not our hearts strangely warmed?
Yes, full recognition of Christ as the living one!
Look at the miracle of the Spirit !( John 16:13- 13 _ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.
He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me.
15All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would tell them “about the future”—the nature of their mission, the opposition they would face, and the final outcome of their efforts.
They didn’t fully understand these promises until the Holy Spirit came after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Then the Holy Spirit revealed truths to the disciples that they wrote down in the books that now form the New Testament.
And Jesus is promising the same indwelling of the Spirit to us, his children in the world today.
Now, not only is the breaking of bread an act of obedience, and an act of remembrance,
but it is also an Act of Allegiance.
“For as often as ye eat bread, and drink this cup,
ye do Proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.”
Yes, this table of communion,
Whither by the Lord we’re led,
Sweetly speaks of blessed union,
One the body, one the bread.
Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we show our allegiance to Christ and Him crucified, and since we are involved in His redemptive work, because of Calvary, we declare our allegiance in a threefold way.
Three ways: fellowship, faith, future.
We show Allegiance to Christ by our desire for fellowship with Him, and we Show Allegiance to Christ by our Faith in Him, and we show Allegiance to Christ by our Great Hope for a future with Him.
When the Lord Jesus began our institution of the Holy Supper, He directed His disciples to look back to His death. When God directed His people in the Passover, it was to look forward to Christ’s death.
And so both feasts—the Old Testament Passover and the New Testament Supper—testify to the very EXACT centrality of the cross.
Whether to the world or to the Church, the Lord’s Supper proclaims that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:3 -- Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 _ He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said! “ -------------------Well,
There will always be people who say that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. But Paul assures us that many people saw Jesus after his resurrection:
Peter; the disciples (the Twelve); more than 500 Christian believers (most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this, although some had died); James (Jesus’ half brother); all the apostles; and finally Paul himself.
The Resurrection is a historical fact.
Don’t be discouraged by doubters who deny the Resurrection. Be filled with hope because of the knowledge that one day you, and they, will see the living proof when Christ returns.
So, we show allegiance to Christ by fellowship, faith, and future:
“Ye do proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.”
Every time we meet to remember the Lord, we are gladly anticipating the second coming of Christ, which is the blessed hope of the Church!
Indeed, the breaking of bread is the link between the cross and the crown, the first advent and the second advent.
Oh deep blessed hope which purifies us as He is pure!
( 1 John 3:2).
May the breaking of Bread of Life call forth from each one of us love and devotion to our precious Lord, as we press on in daily service to Him, as we contemplate the great day of His return!
Oh! the glorious prospect of that second advent!
The breaking of The Bread of Life is designed to remind us that Jesus is on His way back to rapture His waiting Church, “ so He may present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” ( Ephesians 5:27 ).
So, folks, they had rebuilt the temple of God.
And they celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days and there was great joy throughout the land. And Jesus is risen, our Bread is risen, and there is eternally great joy throughout the land and all the universe!
Psalm 8:1 _ O LORD, our LORD, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You are our exodus from slavery! our Salvation! and our glorious freedom! Our true temple is built and is our bread without yeast, our Sanctification and our Salvation.
To God be the Glory!
Some of you know the wonderful joy I spoke of. Some of you don’t. If not, ask Him to come in-and in a milli-second you will have it. Raise your souls right where you are, right in that pew. He will forgive your sins, and you will be His.
Be enthusiastic and loving and always filled with the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.
Forever joyful will our spirits be,
Your living kingdom come in me
and we are home through miracles
you built for us-
embraced within your ecstasy.
This is it, people: Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.
Dear Lord, thank you for being our Bread of Life!
Amen!
jim little, 7-13-03
