Josh Benner

Tag: Bread of Life

  • Sermon: Our Eternal bread – John 6:1-15; 22-59

    Prayer 

    Our heavenly Father, 

    You are the mighty God from whose presence earth and sky flee. Your awesomeness and immensity is that great. We praise your great and glorious name. 

    Lord God, we come to you as fallen people in a fallen world, but may we be reminded of your gospel that though we are sinful and fallen, though you are holy and hate sin, you loved us enough to send your son. 

    Let us rejoice that there is eternal life through what Christ has done. 

    Lord, we pray for our missionaries today. We pray for the work to which you have called them in various parts of our nation and throughout the world. As parts of the world become increasingly hostile to the gospel, as parts of the world and parts of our nation become less receptive to the truth of the gospel, Lord God, we pray for their work, we pray for their safety, we pray for their families and the balance of family and ministry. Lord, we thank you for people we’ve partnered with who are committed to doing your work and serving your kingdom. 

    But may we also be a church that has a burden for our own community and the surrounding communities to serve, to share the Good News, to connect with new people, to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones. 

    Lord, we ask that you bless our time in your word. May we be pointed to truth and life that is only found in Jesus Christ Our Lord. 

    In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

    Introduction 

    We’re resuming our series in the Gospel of John this morning. 

    I’ve loved studying this book with you all and I hope that it’s been a blessing to you. 

    As we go verse by verse, it does take time and I know that’s time well spent but I also think it’s good to sometimes break away, which is why we did our Forensics of Faith series. But happy to be back in John chapter 6 this morning. 

    Certainly, that was a long passage that we just read. Part of this passage we’ve already preached. 

    Today we’re going to be looking at a long section of John 6. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a 90 minute sermon or anything. 

    But I think it’s helpful sometimes to get the 30,000 foot view of a passage and look at how a section works together. 

    And so we’re going to be looking at the passage this morning in three scenes. 

    Certainly part of this passage we’ve talked about before, but I think it’ll be helpful considering the whole section as we build up to Jesus profound statement in verses 53-54: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

    So we’re going to look at three scenes and each of the scenes, we will see bread as a focal point in the story, we will see allusions to the Old Testament, we will see people misunderstanding who Jesus is, and we will see Jesus progressively revealing his nature to the crowds. 

    First scene – Jesus feeding the multitude 

    Jesus feeding the multitudes is the catalyst for everything else which follows in this chapter. 

    To remind us of the passage, Jesus has been teaching and he’s near the sea of Galilee and a large crowd comes to him to hear his teaching. 

    The passage tells us that the group included 5,000 men, not including wives and children so it could easily have been 15,000-20,000 people. 

    They’re in a remote area, and as Jesus is teaching, they run into a logistical problem. 

    How are these people going to eat? 

    They find a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. 

    And then John records the miracle in verses 11-13:  Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

    Illustration – 70-80% increase 

    The Lord Jesus does this miraculous sign when he feeds this large multitude of people. He takes a little bit of bread but then feeds thousands. Verse 13 even tells us that there were leftovers. Now, certainly that would be astonishing to see in person. 

    But I still think it’s hard for a lot of us to truly appreciate that miracle. I think we only get part of why this is amazing. We get the part that’s amazing in the sense that Jesus has made a lot of bread when he had relatively little bread. But I don’t think that we see this as a lot of people throughout history would. 

    D.A. Carson talks about this and I found it helpful. Imagine if I told you that I could increase your income by 80%. 

    You’d be probably be interested in that. Well…in first century Galilee, about 70-80% of a person’s working labor went to either growing food or some other form of work in order to be able to acquire food. 

    And for much of human history, 70-80% of your income simply went to buying food so you could live. 

    By comparison, the average American today spends about 9.5% of their income on food today, according to the USDA. And that includes going out to restaurants and that includes the fact that we buy a lto fo luxuries that we could easily live without, simply because we like them. 9.5% when a lot of people aren’t just sticking to a staple diet of bread, rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, and eggs. 

    And so the point that D.A. Carson makes about this passage is that we’re reading a story that was written in the first century. And they had views of food that were very different than our views of food. And while we might think that it’s neat that Jesus could feed this large group of people, if you had been in the crowd, it wasn’t simply that Jesus had given you a meal, it’s that you saw someone crete the thing for which you toiled and labored and he did it basically out of thin air. 

    How interested would you be if you could increase your income 70-80 percent? I think that the multitudes Jesus fed had thoughts that were much more along those lines than simply being impressed that he gave them a meal. 

    This passage alludes to the Old Testament in a few different ways. First, the beginning of the story mentions that it was the time of Passover. The time when God had used Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. As God had provided bread called manna during the Israelite wanderings, we see Jesus providing bread. 

    And we see their response at the end of that section.

    Verses 14-15: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 

    Verse 14 calls this miracle a sign. And as with the other signs that Jesus has done in this gospel, they always point beyond themselves. And as we’ll see as the passage unfolds, the sign is not simply about the bread. 

    We also see in the passage that after Jesus has fed this multitude, they want to make him their king. It’s easy for hungry people to be drawn to the one who can feed them. After Jesus withdraws from the crowd. After he performs the miracle of walking on water, we see him and the crowd together again on the following day in verse 22. And that brings us to our second scene. In the first scene, we saw Jesus providing bread. In the second scene, Jesus will reveal that he himself is the true bread. 

    Second scene – the bread of life 

    In verse 26, Jesus rebukes the crowd who had wanted to make him king. Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

    Jesus says they’re drawn to them because he fed them. And while that’s significant, it’s not the ultimate need which Jesus came to address. He came to a world that is dead in sin to bring eternal life. They wanted Jesus to be a king, and while Jesus was – and is – a king, he did not come to become king on their terms. 

    As he continues speaking to the crowd, Jesus elaborates on his previous statement in verse 27: Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

    And so the crowd asks Jesus what they must do. And the answer is that it’s not about our goodness, our actions, our behaviors. 

    Verse 29, Jesus explains to the crowd whom he’s just fed: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 

    But the crowd asks for a sign. Forgetting that Jesus had fed them the day before. 

    But they reference the Old Testament. Verse 31: Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ 

    Again, we see the Old Testament as they specifically mention Moses and the manna in the wilderness. The Exodus story was well known in the Jewish world. They were familiar with the manna in heaven. The miracle which Jesus has done reminds them of that. 

    In Exodus, the Lord had promised an abundance of bread. 

    Quoting part of Exodus 16:4:Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you

    Yes,they had seen Jesus provide bread once but God did it everyday for decades. Perhaps that was part of the thought process. If Jesus is supposedly greater than Moses, shouldn’t we see greater things? But Jesus will explain why he’s greater. 

    In verse 33, Jesus says: the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

    And the people ask for this bread. But they still don’t grasp what he’s saying. Just as we saw when Jesus told Nicodmeus that you must be “born again” and he was referring to regeneration not to entering your mother’s womb a second time. Just like when he told the woman at the well of the living water he provided and she thought that he was talking about liquid when he was talking of the cleansing and renewal that comes from the Spirit and faith, here again the crowd thinks that the bread Jesus provides is simply physical nourishment. 

    In verse 34, the crowd pleads “sir, give us this bread always.” 

    In his commentary on John, Colin Kruse notes that they want a continual supply of bread as had been given to the Israelites so they would not have to toil and labor for their sustenance. 

    And that’s when Jesus explains to the crowd: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” 

    Jesus is the eternal nourishment and the daily bread without which we will Spiritually starve. 

    The world wants to just satisfy your body. The world makes idols of what is fleeting and feeds the body. Jesus feeds the soul. And it is because he is the bread of life that he is greater than the bread. Jesus continues speaking to the crowd. 

    He again rebukes the crowd in verse 36: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 

    The crowd is following Jesus but not for the right reasons and not out of faith. They’re drawn to the spectacle and the hope that he can meet their physical needs. As Jesus continues to elaborate, he will make several references to his mission and purpose in connection to the will and plan of God. 

    The crowd might have an incorrect theology but the truth of the divine plan does not depend on man. Jesus has come to do the will of God. Those whom God has given him, he will not cast out. Jesus will tell the crowd in verse 38 that he has been sent from heaven. And with that, we come to our third scene which is the culmination of Jesus giving bread to the multitudes and explaining that he is the bread of life. 

    He explains the bread in its relationship to eternal life. 

    Third scene – 

    In verse 40, Jesus says: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 

    As we’ve seen many times throughout this gospel, Jesus is not seeker sensitive with his statement. He speaks in absolutes and does not leave any gray area. And the crowd is taken aback. He’s telling the crowd of the necessity of faith in him. 

    There’s irony that the crowd thinks they know Jesus. They’re taking in the claims he’s making that he is the bread of life, that eternal life is found in believing in him. 

    Verses 41-42: So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 

    They question Jesus’ credentials. But Jesus responds to the group. And he largely picks up his train of thought from a few verses ago. Verse 43, he rebukes the crowd for their grumbling. The Israelites would grumble during their wanderings in the desert. They would question God’s goodness and faithfulness. 

    Jesus is the Lord on earth who they question. 

    The Israelites would eventually complain about the manna, grumble, and complain about that as their daily food source. Jesus is the true bread who they are not looking to for their Spiritual sustenance. He has already established that nothing thwarts the divine plan of the gospel. Jesus has already said that he cannot lose any who come to him in true faith. 

     44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 

    Jesus is saying that one cannot come to Him, the source of true life, unless the father draws them. 

    In the New Testament, we see this idea in action in Acts 16 when Paul is ministering to Lydia. The passage says: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. (Acts 16:4) 

    In verses 47-48, Jesus again says that it is belief in him that is the basis for eternal life and that he is the bread of life. 

    There is a lot of repetition in this passage. Keep in mind that the original audience to whom Jesus was speaking were only listening and if you’re speaking versus writing, you sometimes will say things more times for emphasis and to get the point across. Jesus keeps reiterating that he is the bread of life, he keeps reiterating in this passage that he is the one sent from heaven. 

    With all of the discussion in this passage about Israelites and the manna, Jesus reminds them of an important fact. 

    49-50: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 

    Yes, the Israelites had manna, but they still died. Jesus promises eternal life. In verse 46, Jesus talks of him as one who has seen God. Moses never saw God. Earlier in this passage, the audience incorrectly attributes provision of the bread to Moses instead of to God. 

    What Jesus is saying is that he is greater. He is greater than Moses. He gives greater bread. He brings something that will be greater than the Old Covenant. He gives a greater revelation of God.

    And here we come to the fruition of Jesus’ teaching point. In the first scene, Jesus provided the bread. In the second scene, Jesus said he was the bread. And here he says that it is the consumption of this bread which causes eternal life. 

    51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

    The one who eats the bread Jesus provides has eternal life and also the bread he gives is his flesh. Obviously, he was not speaking literally. Certainly, for observant Jewish people, the idea of cannibalism would have been just as grotesque as it is for us today. The audience tries to understand. 

    Verse 52: The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

    He’s raised the stakes. It’s not just eating his flesh, he says, but also drinking his blood. 

    How do we do this? 

    So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

    Some take his language of eating his flesh and drinking his blood to be a reference to communion. That’s certainly the Catholic understanding of this passage.

    I can see how it appears that way but the setting and language do not fit the other gospels. It’s not in the context of a meal where he’s breaking bread and giving wine. Communion is instituted just before Jesus dies, and this is a Passover which is at least a year before Jesus died. Communion is instituted as a sign of the New Covenant, this is not yet the time of the New Covenant. 

    When we take communion, while the bread is a symbol for the body of Christ, in this passage Jesus refers to the bread as his “flesh,” and so even the terms are different. Furthermore, when Jesus talks of the necessity of consuming his flesh and blood, to associate that with partaking in communion, that does not fit the context of this entire passage. 

    Consider again verse 35: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

    Coming to him and believing in him are the reasons why a person will not hunger or thirst. 

    Consider verse 40: everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life

    And then consider again verse 53: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

    Everything in this passage and this gospel has ultimately hinged on belief in Jesus. And so it’s the wrong interpretation to take verse 53 as Jesus saying that a person must participate in communion or the Lord’s Supper in order to be saved. 

    Communion is important. But it’s not salvific. 

    So while he’s not talking about communion, I think it’s important to consider that communion and this passage are both referring to the same thing which is Jesus’ sacrificial death. So this passage doesn’t refer to communion, but communion and this passage refer to the same thing. Hopefully that makes sense? Both things point to the gospel. 

    In the Spiritual sense, the flesh of Christ is eaten, and the blood of Christ is drunk by the means of having faith in Jesus. And it is that which is the culminating point of this section. Jesus is the bread of life that we must consume and that is done through having faith in him. 

    As he’s done elsewhere in this gospel, he uses an example from the physical world to communicate a Spiritual reality. And so when Jesus says we must eat his flesh and drink his blood here, it is a metaphor for believing in him. 

     Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 

    There, Jesus points us to salvation and the promise of future resurrection. 

     Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 

    Jesus points to our union with him as those who believe in him. 

    As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 

    Just as the manna needed to be collected everyday. Just as the bread Jesus gave to the multitudes only sustained them for a meal, Jesus provides the bread from which we will never hunger. 

    And so in this passage, we see that Jesus provides something greater than Moses because Jesus is greater than Moses. And we see that Jesus is the bread of life and he’s the one whose flesh was given so that we could be forgiven. He’s the one whose blood was shed so that we could have life. And the belief that his life was given so that we could have eternal life is the ultimate consumption of the bread which Jesus provides. 

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  • Jesus is the bread of life and why bread is the perfect food

    Jesus is the bread of life and why bread is the perfect food

    Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
    -John 6:35

    Jesus tells a group who’s following him that he is the bread of life. What the perfect food to pick. Something so universal, something that’s such a staple of life. Most foods, you can find someone who doesn’t like them. 

    Cheese is amazing. There are people who don’t like cheese. There are people who don’t like fish, or beef. There are even weirdos who don’t like chocolate. But everyone likes bread. It’s a universal staple. 

    Think about bread for a moment. A lot of restaurants you go to, they just give you a bowl of bread. You go to an Italian restaurant, maybe it’ll be breadsticks, maybe it’ll be bread with some olive oil. You go to a Mexican restaurant, they bring you chips and salsa. The tortilla chip is just bread that they then fried. 

    They don’t even charge you for it. Just “here, have some bread.” 

    Go to a Mediterranean restaurant, the meal will come with a pita. An Indian restaurant, it’ll be naan. 

    And that only works with bread. 

    Can you imagine going to a restaurant and they bring the table a bowl of broccoli? No! You can’t even imagine that. 

    Really, a lot of popular chain restaurants are known more for their bread than their actual entrees. No one is really going to Red Lobster for their week old fish and ocean roaches. It’s all about the cheddar bay biscuits. Olive Garden? The breadsticks are the real star of the show. 

    We love bread. 

    It plays a major role in so many of our favorite foods. Pizza. Cheeseburgers. Fried chicken. 

    Meatballs. Already a brilliant idea unto itself. A ball of meat, but we say “needs bread crumbs.” 

    We add bread to things that have nothing to do with bread. A salad. Mostly vegetables, let’s add bread crumbs. Soup. Mostly liquid, let’s add crackers and put it in a bread bowl. A bowl of ice cream. We look and say “the soup people were onto something. Let’s get rid of the bowl and replace that with a piece of bread.” 

    Most of our favorite desserts are just sweeter versions of bread.  Cake. Donuts. All the best breakfast foods. Bread. Pancakes, waffles, french toast, bagels. We LOVE bread. 

    Rich people love bread, poor people love bread. Old people love bread, young people love bread. We love it so much that many years ago, people said “I wonder if we can find a way to drink this stuff.” And that’s how beer was invented! 

    Bread and language

    Bread even impacts our language and sayings. 

    We judge the greatness of achievements and innovation by how it stacks up with sliced bread. We have indoor plumbing, we have cures to horrible disease, we’ve been to the moon, we have the internet. But no, when something great comes along, we compare that to the invention of sliced bread. When we eat together, we call that breaking bread. In many cultures, bread is a symbol of peace. We call money dough and the person who makes more money in a relationship is called the “bread winner.” If someone wants too much out of a situation, we say “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

    Bread in the Bible

    And then we consider it in the Bible. God feeds the Israelites with manna (which was bread) from heaven. Jesus references that in the Lord’s Prayer when he teaches us to pray “Give us each day our daily bread.” It is bread to which Jesus refers when the devil tempts him. He’s quoting from Deuteronomy but he says “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).  

    Even the place where Jesus was born. Bethlehem in Hebrew means “house of bread.” 

    And it is bread at the Last Supper when Jesus institutes communion which he takes and breaks and says “this is my body, which is broken for you.” 

    Bread matters in our lives and the Bible. 

    Jesus is the bread of life

    So in John 6, a great crowd has seen miraculous signs done by Jesus. He’s just fed multitudes. But the crowd wanted to be dazzled with greater signs and wonders but Jesus instead explains the significance of the sign when he felt the multitudes. 

    The manna from heaven was the bread which God gave to the Isrealites to sustain them on their desert wanderings. Jesus is the bread of life which God has given to sustain the human soul. 

    The people had followed Jesus because he filled their stomachs, but Jesus came to save our souls. 

    The people wanted to see a physical display of glory and power but Jesus came to fulfill the longings of the human soul. 

    And it’s for that reason that Jesus is the greater bread. The manna had to be collected everyday. Jesus is the bread which gives eternal life at the moment you believe in him. 

    But as the manna was collected daily, there is still a daily element to the bread which Jesus provides as he himself is the bread we need everyday for our spiritual sustenance. Without the bread which Jesus provides, we grow spiritually hungry and malnourished. We need to feed upon him everyday.

    We need to commune with Christ everyday. Anytime you’re struggling spiritually, you feel like you’re just going through the motions, the first thing you should ask yourself is what your daily time with Jesus is looking like. 

    Going to him, praying, meditating on his word, serving his people, loving his people, orienting our lives around him.

    Jesus is the eternal nourishment and the daily bread without which we will Spiritually starve. 

    The world wants to just satisfy your body. 

    If you can just have enough money, you’ll be secure and have what you need. Some people are drawn to intimacy and feel like that will sustain their soul. It’s looking to a physical desire. Some look to prestige and power. Those are still ultimately fleeting accolades that you can’t take with you. Dying people in a dying world honoring one another. Some people look to politics. The right party being in office. Men who are fallen and sinful, flesh and bones are our hope. 

    The world makes idols of what is fleeting and feeds the body. Jesus feeds the soul. 

    Jesus is the bread of life. 

    Where is your hope though? Is it in the material? Is it in today? Is it in what you have or who you are? Is it in what’s in front of you? Or is it in the eternal Lord of creation? 

    The crowd had said to Jesus: What must we do, to be doing the works of God?

    Jesus says: I am the bread of life. whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst

    We’re called to come to him. Coming to him in humility, coming to him realizing our needs, realizing our hunger. 

    And we are to believe in him. To trust in his gospel and his grace. We must recognize that we’re sinners in need of a savior. 

    That is what we do to receive the bread of life. We believe in Jesus. And he invites us to never hunger or thirst because he fulfills the longings of the human soul. 

  • Sermon: The Bread of Life: John 6:27-35

    27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
    35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

    Our heavenly father,

    We thank you for this day and the opportunity to come together to praise your glorious name. Lord, may we be ever mindful of the wonders of your goodness. May we love you with all of our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come into the world to bring your kingdom, to shine as light, and to reconcile sinful humanity. It is Jesus alone who is the author and perfecter of our faith.

    Lord, we pray for this season that we’re in. For many of us, these are stressful times. Uncertain times. We see what’s going on in our nation and around the world, and it can be easy to be discouraged. Lord, we pray for your nearness. May we not be people who are stressed by the concerns and worries of the world but let us be people who walk in faith everyday.

    We again pray for our time in your word. I thank you for every person here and I pray that we can again be encouraged, edified, exhorted, and enlightened through your Word. And most importantly, I pray that we can be pointed to your gospel.

    In Jesus’ name, Amen.

    In World War II, thousands of children throughout Europe were left as orphaned. Some of them ended up in refugee camps. With the trauma of war, losing their homes, and losing family, it should be no surprise that many of them struggled to sleep. Efforts to reassure the kids or comfort them did not help. Until someone came up with the ingenious idea to give the kids a piece of bread to take with them to bed in the evening. It was a reminder to the kids that they had eaten the day before and also had food for the next day. It was a reminder that they were cared for. It was a sense of security.

    Among our most basic needs we have as people is our need to eat. And this morning, as we continue in the Gospel of John, Jesus will make a profound statement to a crowd which has been following him when he says “I am the bread of life.” And so we’re going to look at our passage this morning in three parts and with that we’ll jump right in.

    Part 1 – A question answered
    We’re in a section in John 6 which covers Jesus feeding a multitude of 5,000 men – not to mention wives and children – with five loaves of bread and two fish. It’s the next day and Jesus is speaking to people from that crowd who have followed him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

    Beginning in 27 and Jesus says to the crowd: Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

    So there are two kinds of food: the food that perishes. That was the food which Jesus has provided for the crowd. And a second type of food is the food which endures to eternal life. That is the food which Jesus ultimately came into the world to bring. The crowd is focused on the first kind, the food that perishes. Jesus is focused on the second kind.

    They’re preoccupied with what’s natural and physical. If you remember from last week’s passage, Jesus had rebuked the crowd when he said: you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

    They miss the true point of the sign. They’re focused on what Jesus is doing for them. They’re focused on the world around them and not the world above. Verse 28, the crowd asks: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

    Not an unreasonable question.

    But the work of God is not about a level of moral achievement which we can attain. Jesus tells them: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

    What a wonderful summary of the gospel. The world labors to earn salvation, to be good enough for God, to have a leg to stand on before the Almighty. Do you want to be right with God? Do you want to be forgiven? Do you want to know forgiveness and grace?

    Believe in the one he has sent, believe in Jesus. Where is your belief? If you ever question if you’re good enough, you’re not. But the good news is that Jesus is.

    If you ever struggle with doubts, struggle with despair, remember that salvation is not about how good we are. If it were, none of us would have any hope. Real salvation is in believing in the one whom God has sent. Jesus has already said similar things in this gospel.

    John 3:16: God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

    John 5:24: whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

    Paul says in Romans 10:13: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

    The work of God is faith, genuine belief in who Jesus is. That is the basis for our forgiveness and right-standing before God. It is entirely the work of Christ. To quote the great Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards: “you contribute nothing to your own salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”

    Where is your faith?

    If it is in anything except for the saving work of Christ, then you are resting your hope in another gospel, which is no gospel at all.

    There is one way to do the work of God in the world and be made right with him. It is believing in the Lord Jesus.

    Point 2 – A sign demanded
    We come to our second point. They want to see greater signs from Jesus. Jesus is saying that they need to believe in him. Jesus has literally just done a sign when he fed them, but they want to be even more dazzled.

    Verses 30-31:
    So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

    Basically what the crowd is saying is that they want an even greater sign than the manna from heaven that had been provided during the Israelite wanderings. Just to get us all up to speed, while the Israelites were in the desert, they didn’t have a lot of options for food. It was a nation of people traveling. The desert is not the best ecosystem for foraging or hunting. It’s not like they could just stop at the grocery store every few days and get supplies.

    But it was God who had led them there. And if God leads, he will always provide to achieve his purposes. And so God had miraculously fed the Israelites with this bread from heaven called manna. Six days a week, and they were supposed to collect two days worth on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh.

    But God did this week after week and year after year for the Israelites.

    The crowd demands a sing. But what’s their motivation?
    Illustration – Messianc expectations
    I’ve talked about this before, but in the first century, you had all sorts of expectations about what the Messiah would do, what he would be like. And Jesus doesn’t really fit into any of their expectations. A lot of people thought that the Messiah would be an earthly king. And that’s actually their response after Jesus originally fed them.

    John 6:15: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

    Jesus is the king of kings, but he did not come to primarily be the earthly king that many in the first century expected. And as we mentioned a few moments ago, Jesus has also rebuked the crowd for following him not because of who he was but because he had fed them when he said: you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

    So the crowd asks for another sign. Is it really because they want to follow him?

    Richard Phillips talks about this in his commentary of John. But he suggests that it’s because the crowd actually wants to justify themselves and continue doing what they’re doing and believing what they’re believing and so they instead undermine and challenge his authority? I think that’s the most reasonable interpretation.

    They’re not asking for a sign because they want to believe. They’re challenging Jesus because they don’t want to believe. As we’ve already seen numerous times in John, there’s a lot of irony.

    They ask for a sign when he’s already done a sign when he fed them. In fact, Jesus did another sign when he walked on water but they hadn’t seen it.

    They ask for bread when Jesus has already given them bread! The bread was the sign that was indicative of Jesus coming to provide the greater manna! The bread which Jesus gave was greater than the manna because unlike manna which needed to be collected everyday, the eternal life which Jesus provides is something that he gives once and forever.

    There’s irony in that they’re challenging him by comparing him to Moses when Jesus actually does do things greater than Moses ever did. But Jesus is not a magician. He’s not an entertainer. He doesn’t exist primarily to impress people. And he’s not going to bend to their whims.

    Back in our passage. Verse 32, Jesus is responding to the crowd who wants to see further signs.

    Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

    Jesus brings up Moses because that is what he’s being compared to. But Jesus is greater than Moses. And the bread that was provided during the time of Moses had come from God, not Moses.

    He continues: For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

    Jesus is referring to himself. He is the bread of God who comes down from heaven. While the manna sustained life, Jesus is the one who gives life, true life, eternal life to the world. Jesus is once again using a metaphor to communicate a profound truth about the world. He is the bread from heaven that sustains the human soul.
    Validation – missing the metaphor

    In chapter 3, when Jesus talks to Nocodemus, he tells him that he must be born again. Nicodemus misses the point. He takes Jesus literally. Chapter 4, Jesus talks to the woman at the well and tells her of the living water that he provides. She misses the point and thinks he’s simply talking about water. And here again, Jesus talks of the bread from heaven. And the people miss the point. Verse 34, they think he’s just talking about bread.

    They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

    And we come to the key verse in the passage.

    Point 3 – a sign explained
    Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

    Before we get into this verse, I want to give a brief aside on two words.

    “I am.”

    In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes seven statements which are known as the “I am statements.” Verse 35 is the first of the seven when Jesus says “I am the bread of life.”

    In other sections, Jesus will also go on to say:
    “I am the light of the world”
    “I am the gate.”
    “I am the good shepherd.”
    “I am the resurrection and the life.”
    “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
    “I am the true vine.”

    There are a few reasons why these statements are significant.

    First, Jesus is making revelations about himself, his ministry, and his mission in the world through these statements.

    Second. Each of these statements is unique to John’s Gospel. In the other gospels, Jesus certainly makes many statements which inform us to who he is. But the formula of him saying “I am” and following that a metaphorical statement about his identity is only in John.

    Third, the statements matter because they have resonance to the Old Testament. For instance, the bread of life alludes to the manna from heaven.

    But the I am statements also allude to Old Testament passages such as Exodus 3 when God has called upon Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Moses asks God for his divine name.

    Exodus 3:13-14: 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

    God simply refers to himself as “I am.” He is being itself. We often like to anthropomorphize God. We give him human characteristics. Dennis Phillips points out language that the Bible sometimes uses about God in his book “Before Abraham was, I am.”

    “His hand offers protections. His arm indicates strength. The heavens are the work of his fingers. We are under his watchful eye. He is our King and at the same time, our Heavenly Father.”

    All of those ideas are Biblical. And all of them are helpful in our understanding of God.

    But God is also grand and mysterious. And it is his being that he communicates to Moses and that is the same language which Jesus picks up in his “I am” statements.

    Pure existence and being. None of us can say that. Because there was a time when we were not. And our lives depend on God’s provision and sustenance.

    But God can simply say “I am.” And so can Jesus. So while the “I am” statements do make claims about the ministry of Christ, they also inherently make claims of his own divinity.

    Jesus is the I am. Something else that’s interesting if you know a little bit about Greek. There’s basically two ways to say “I am” in Greek. The typical way is the Greek word “eimi.” That means “I am.” You’d use that in any regular setting if you had lived in first century Greece. “I am Josh.” “I am a pastor.” “I am going to the grocery store,” etc.

    But for the “I am” statements, and other times when Jesus says “I am,” they actually add the Greek personal pronoun. So you have the word “I” followed by “I am,” which seems to be done for extra emphasis. It’s the same language you find in the Greek translation of Exodus where God tells Moses “I am.” Because of that, I take the form of language in which Jesus’ “I am” statements are recorded to be an obvious claim of deity. Returning to our passage. Jesus says “I am the bread of life.”
    Bread

    Let’s think about bread for a moment. What the perfect food to pick. Something so universal, something that’s such a staple of life. Most foods, you can find someone who doesn’t like them. Cheese is amazing. There are people who don’t like cheese.

    There are people who don’t like fish, or beef. There are even weirdos who don’t like chocolate. But everyone likes bread. It’s a universal staple. Let’s talk about bread for a minute. A lot of restaurants you go to, they just give you a bowl of bread. You go to an Italian restaurant, maybe it’ll be breadsticks, maybe it’ll be bread with some olive oil. You go to a Mexican restaurant, they bring you chips and salsa. The tortilla chip is just bread that they then fried.

    They don’t even charge you for it. Just “here, have some bread.” Go to a Mediterranean restaurant, the meal will come with a pita. An Indian restaurant, it’ll be naan. And that only works with bread. Can you imagine going to a restaurant and they bring the table a bowl of broccoli? No! You can’t even imagine that. Really, a lot of popular chain restaurants are known more for their bread than their actual entrees. We love bread. It plays a major role in so many of our favorite foods. Pizza. Cheeseburgers. Fried chicken.

    Meatballs. Already a brilliant idea unto itself. A ball of meat, but we say “needs bread crumbs.” We add bread to things that have nothing to do with bread. A salad. Mostly vegetables, let’s add bread crumbs. Soup. Mostly liquid, let’s add crackers and put it in a bread bowl. A bowl of ice cream. We look and say “the soup people were onto something. Let’s get rid of the bowl and replace that with a piece of bread.”

    Most of our favorite desserts are just sweeter versions of bread. Cake. Donuts. All the best breakfast foods. Bread. Pancakes, waffles, french toast, bagels.

    We LOVE bread. Rich people love bread, poor people love bread. Old people love bread, young people love bread. Have you ever seen someone on the Atkins diet? They look the spark of light in their eyes. Bread even impacts our language and sayings.

    We judge the greatness of achievements and innovation by how it stacks up with sliced bread. We have indoor plumbing, we have cures to horrible disease, we’ve been to the moon, we have the internet. But no, when something great comes along, we compare that to the invention of sliced bread.

    When we eat together, we call that breaking bread. In many cultures, bread is a symbol of peace. We call money dough and the person who makes more money in a relationship is called the “bread winner.” If someone wants too much out of a situation, we say “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

    And then we consider it in the Bible. We’ve talked at great length about the manna. Jesus references that in the Lord’s Prayer when he teaches us to pray “Give us each day our daily bread.” It is bread to which Jesus refers when the devil tempts him. He’s quoting from Deuteronomy but he says “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

    Even the place where Jesus was born. Bethlehem in Hebrew means “house of bread.” And it is bread at the Last Supper when Jesus institutes communion which he takes and breaks and says “this is my body, which is broken for you.” Bread matters in our lives and the Bible.

    The crowd wanted to be dazzled with greater signs and wonders but Jesus instead explains the significance of the sign when he felt the multitudes. The manna from heaven was the bread which God gave to the Isrealites to sustain them on their desert wanderings. Jesus is the bread of life which God has given to sustain the human soul. The people had followed Jesus because he filled their stomachs, but Jesus came to save our souls.

    The people wanted to see a physical display of glory and power but Jesus came to fulfill the longings of the human soul. And it’s for that reason that Jesus is the greater bread.

    The manna had to be collected everyday. Jesus is the bread which gives eternal life at the moment you believe in him. But as the manna was collected daily, there is still a daily element to the bread which Jesus provides as he himself is the bread we need everyday for our spiritual sustenance. Without the bread which Jesus provides, we grow spiritually hungry and malnourished. We need to feed upon him everyday.

    We need to commune with Christ everyday. Anytime you’re struggling spiritually, you feel like you’re just going through the motions, the first thing you should ask yourself is what your daily time with Jesus is looking like. Going to him, praying, meditating on his word, serving his people, loving his people, orienting our lives around him.

    Jesus is the eternal nourishment and the daily bread without which we will Spiritually starve. The world wants to just satisfy your body. If you can just have enough money, you’ll be secure and have what you need.
    Some people are drawn to intimacy and feel like that will sustain their soul. It’s looking to a physical desire.
    Some look to prestige and power. Those are still ultimately fleeting accolades that you can’t take with you. Dying people in a dying world honoring one another.
    Some people look to politics. The right party being in office. Men who are fallen and sinful, flesh and bones are our hope.

    The world makes idols of what is fleeting and feeds the body. Jesus feeds the soul. Jesus is the bread of life. Where is your hope though?

    Is it in the material? Is it in today? Is it in what you have or who you are? Is it in what’s in front of you? Or is it in the eternal Lord of creation?

    The crowd had said to Jesus: What must we do, to be doing the works of God?

    Jesus says: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

    We’re called to come to him. Coming to him in humility, coming to him realizing our needs, realizing our hunger. And we are to believe in him. To trust in his gospel and his grace. We must recognize that we’re sinners in need of a savior. That is what we do to receive the bread of life. We believe in Jesus. And he invites us to never hunger or thirst because he fulfills the longings of the human soul.

    Praise the Lord.