The food pyramid diagram can be found on much of the food packaging in the United States. Released in 2004 by the United States Department of Agriculture, the food pyramid suggested how much of each food category one should eat each day. The food guide pyramid replaced the four food groups. This initial pyramid became famous throughout the world, and was, in some way, an American icon. In general terms the food guide pyramid recommends the following intake of different food groups each day: occasional use of fats, oils, and sweet (7 teaspoons oil per day); 2-3 servings of dairy products every other day; 2-3 servings of meat, fish, eggs, nuts or beans a day; 2-4 servings of fruits a day; 3-5 servings a day of vegetables, especially green, leafy vegetables; and 6-11 servings a day of grains including rice, bread, cereals, and pasta.
Bread is what is considered a staple food, that is, it’s a food that forms the basis of a traditional diet, particularly that of the poor. Typically, staples are inexpensive, starchy foods that are high in food energy that can be stored for use throughout the year. It makes sense then, that Jesus calls himself the bread of life. He is a staple in our lives! We need more of him than anything else!
You’ll notice that the bread group forms the base of the pyramid. That’s because Jesus is the base of our life! Everything is built on him! You can’t build a relationship that’s going to last if its not built on Jesus! You can’t build a family that’ll last if its not built on Jesus! No church can survive unless its built on Jesus! Yes, its no coincidence that the American dollar stands as the most effective form of currency in the world! It’s no wonder the United States has stood for so long as the premiere economic superpower! Because we’re the only ones who have “in God we trust” on our money! We stood for so long as the hegemonic superpower, unchallenged, uncontested, because we’re the only ones who pledge allegiance to a flag that flies over one nation under God! Notice that once we took prayer out of schools, once it became that “under God” is an optional phrase in the pledge, that’s when folk started challenging us! That’s when we got attacked! You watch and see what happens if a couple wayward folk get their way and “in God we trust” is taken off money! I guarantee you the dollar won’t be worth nothin! The songwriter said it best On Christ the solid rock I stand… all other ground is sinking sand!
That’s why the food pyramid requires that we take 6-11 servings of bread! We’re going to take 6 today, verses fifty-two through fifty-eight of the sixth chapter of John. Sometime after Jesus had performed all the miracles on the sick, and walked on the water, a crowd followed him. When they finally caught up to him, they asked him many questions, one of which was “what are the things God wants us to do?” Jesus’ answer was incandescently clear. He said, “believe on the one he sent.” Then he maintained, “I am the bread of life! Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whosoever believes on me will never go thirsty! Therefore feed on me! And be drawn to me, and receive life more abundantly!”
Unless a man receives Christ, he has no life within him. He is a dead man spiritually and eternally. He is meandering about as a dead man. Physically he is in the process of aging and dying, of living in the realm of death and being doomed to die. Spiritually, he is already dead, having no life with God. He has no life, no real and true relationship with the true and living God. He is doomed to eternal death and separation from God. The point is this: a man must receive Christ into his heart, into his innermost being if he wishes to live.
To receive Christ: to accept, partake, appropriate, assimilate, absorb, and to make part of oneself. A person can actually receive and partake of Christ in the closest and most intimate and nourishing sense of his being. This is absolutely essential in order to truly live—in order to possess real life that lasts not only now but also forever.
This brings us to the first point: when you receive the Bread of Life, you get eternal life! That is eternal from the Latin word aeturnus from aevum, which means an age. That has an Indo-European base of aiw or aju which means a life, lifetime or whence. In the Old English, it means always. So if eternal means life and we’re talking about eternal life, that’s life and life! You don’t need to be a mathematician to figure out that that’s life squared! That’s a never-ending life! A life without beginning or ending! Its an everlasting life! Life that is forever the same; always true and valid! Life that never seems to stop! Eventually the flesh must die but the spirit of those that partake the Bread of Life will live on forever!
Yet, let us pay close attention to three details in verse fifty-four. First of all, the word “eat” means to eat eagerly, to grasp at chunks, to eat with pleasure. It is the image of hungering after Christ and eagerly wanting to feed and feast on him. Second of all, the tense of the word is also different. It is the present tense, which implies continuous action. A person must continue to eat and develop and grow into the habit of feasting upon Christ. Christian growth day by day is the total picture. Furthermore, it is vitally important that you understand this point; a genuine believer, a person who really receives Christ is one who takes of him continually. Day by day they feast upon Christ! Its important to emphasize day by day here because so many of us have this twisted idea in our heads that all we have to go is be holier than thou on Sundays at the church house. Then once we leave from this place, we go back into the world and at like them! But see, the real believer, not the one just giving lip service, but the real believer! The one who shows Jesus through himself daily, is who has the promise of eternal life, and eternal life includes three great things: abundant that is plentiful, and eternal life; the conquest, or defeat and downfall of death; and the resurrection when we rise again!
In addition, Jesus also said to the multitude “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from Heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread!” While so many things in the world may promise you satisfaction, receiving the Bread of Life guarantees you true satisfaction; satisfaction indeed! After its broken down, “in” is a preposition and “deed” is the base word. Deeds are actually doings or works. Back in the day the word deed was used to give accolades to those honest nobles and peasants that did honest work for the king and his court. Therefore, consider indeed as “in honesty.” You can take it to the bank! You can bet the farm on it! The word indeed means true as opposed to false. The things of the world do not feed and fill us, not with a true satisfaction. Worldly pleasures and satisfactions are false; and false satisfactions always leave us somewhat empty, dissatisfied, and craving for more.
Its like diet pills. Diet pills are filled with a substance that will hold your stomach, therefore making your stomach send messages to the brain that you’re full, therefore making you eat less it you eat at all. When in actuality, your taste buds are longing for the taste of real food and your body longs for the nutrients real food gives. So then true satisfaction is not going to come until you sit down and eat something real! Likewise, true satisfaction comes from receiving Christ into one’s life! And it only comes through Christ! This is the Lord’s point in verse fifty-five. Just as real life on the earth comes from eating food and drinking liquids, so real and abundant life comes from eating and drinking Christ! One must receive Christ in the closest and most intimate and nourishing sense in order to have true life, life that is abundant and full of assurance. Life that is abundant and full of strength. Life that is abundant and full of meekness. Life that is abundant and full of goodness. Life that is abundant and full of love! Life that is abundant and full of security. Life that is abundant and full of integrity. Life that is abundant and full of temperance. Life that is abundant and full of patience. Life that is abundant and full of joy. Life that is abundant and full of confidence. Life that is abundant and full of courage. Life that is abundant and full of faith. Life that is abundant and full of gentleness. And life that is abundant and full of peace!
Still, the person who receives Christ the Bread of Life receives supernatural companionship and fellowship, care and being looked after. Jesus said, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” The person receives Christ and he enters his life and abides or dwells within him. Remember when they said “you are what you eat?” When you partake of the Bread of Life Jesus comes and lives in you! When you’ve got Jesus in you can’t nobody tell you what you aren’t! Because Jesus is the great I am! So when I get Jesus in me I am also! I am fearfully made! I am a child of God! I am blessed! I am intelligent! I am good looking! I am desirable! I am important! I am valuable! I am rich! I am victorious!
When you partake the Bread of Life you’re also placed into Christ! That is dipped with all other believers into the spiritual pool or body of Christ! You abide in Christ even as Christ abides in you! This, of course, means fellowship with Christ and his never-ending onmisicent, omnipresent, omnipotent care! And greater is he that is within me than he that is in the world! How do I get the Lord to abide in me? The word says he inhabits the praises of his people! If I just bless the Lord oh my soul and all that’s within me… All you gotta do is praise him where you are right now! He’ll never move out of your praises! He’ll abide with you forever as long as you so abide with him!
Paul says that to live is Christ. It is when we are in Christ, partaking the Bread of Life that our life becomes more meaningful. Jesus said, “I live by the father!” This means at least two things: one, he lived by the father, that is, because of, on account of the father. His life, in all its purpose, meaning, and significance, was due to the father; and two, he lived for the father, that is, he lived to do the father’s will! The father sent him to live on earth or a specific purpose. His life in all its purpose, meaning, and significance was lived for the father: to fulfill the father’s will and task. So notice that the person who receives Christ lives by Christ. You can tell when somebody had their servings of bread cause they walk differently! They walk like Christ! Every step of a righteous man is ordered by God! They go places God would want them to go! They say things God would want them to say! If you want to know your purpose, if you want to find meaning in your life you need to get with Jesus! Without Jesus there is no life! Without him there is no purpose! Everything is empty, null, and void! And heed again, the tense is present. A person must continue to partake, eat, and feast upon Christ to keep his sense of purpose and meaning, to really live and live abundantly.
Finally, when you receive Christ you receive incorruptible, everlasting food within our hearts energizing our lives forever! The multitude that followed Christ and asked him questions thought the Bread of Life was the manna their forefathers ate in Israel. Christ had to point out to them, however, that their forefathers are now dead! All of them, literally every one! The idea is crystal clear: it is Christ, the Living Bread who strengthens and inspires one to live forever. Christ has the quality, the power, and the stuff to stimulate somebody and give him or her eternal life! However, he, and he alone has this power!
He and he alone has the power to give eternal life! He and he alone has the power to give true satisfaction! Drinking can’t do it! Smoking can’t do it! Mary Jane can’t do it! Partying can’t do it! Clubbing can’t do it! Only he can! He and he alone has the power to grant me “daily closer walks with thee!” Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him!” Nothing can fulfull you the way the Living Bread can! Because the Living Bread is Jesus Christ and there ain’t nobody nor nothing that is better than Christ! Nobody, or nothing, anything like Christ! To sum it up the easiest way possible: there is no man, like this man, anywhere close to this man, so this must be the man! Jesus Christ! The Bread of Life! Jesus Christ, the Real Thing! Coca-Cola copyrighted it, but Jesus Christ has long been epitomizing it! Yes, he is the real thing! The Living Bread, the Bread of Life!
He is the real Wonderbread! Full of wonder and full of power! He is the bread we need to eat! He was made a very special way, by a very special body, just for we very special people! Just for you and just for me, this bread was nailed down to a cross! This bread was pierced in his side! And it hung there until the people said it had died! And so they picked up this bread they put it in a tomb! And they knew at that moment that it must have been prized bread because they had to have folk stand at a tomb and guard it! And that brad, it baked all Friday night! It baked there all day and night Saturday! But early, Sunday morning, like all good bread does the Bread of Life ROSE from the tomb!
