I AM: The Bread of Life
John 6: 25 – 40
Today we begin our sermon series for Lent and into Easter on the “I AM” statements of Jesus. As you know from reading your newsletter, the use of these “I AM” statements is one of the ways Jesus seeks to reveal himself to mankind throughout the Gospel of John.
He deliberately uses these statements to make a direct connection with the divine name of God that was used in the Exodus 3, when God identifies himself to Moses through the burning bush. When Moses asks him what His names is ‘God said to Moses, “I AM who I AM. Say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” It is fitting then that Jesus would use this name familiar to the Jews to reveal himself to the people as the One in whom God is visible and made known.
Often throughout the Gospel of John, including our passage for today, the “I AM” is followed by a common item found during Biblical times. A metaphor that Jesus knew would best speak to the people. Today we study the first on; “I AM: The Bread of Life.”
In order for us to have a good frame of reference for our lesson today, for us to have a full appreciation we need recount the lessons that precede ours. They are stories that we all know well. The first is the feeding of the 5000 and the next of the story of Jesus walking on water out on the Sea of Galilee.
The day after the feeding of the 5000 the folks that had been following Jesus around, that same group that had been fed decided to go look for Jesus again. The crowd had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there anymore, they went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus didn’t answer their question, because he knew that there was something else on their minds other then when he arrived. So instead he pressed the deeper issue of hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
He said to them, you’re really not concerned about when I got here, you ate your fill yesterday of the loaves and fishes, and that’s what you’re interested in. You are more interested in more food rather than knows who I am as the powerful Son of God. Then he warned them, do not spend yourself, he said, for bread that perishes, but seek that bread which is God’s offer of eternal life.
So they press Jesus to get them to believe that he is special. They say what sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you. They mention Manna in the wilderness, the provision that had come for their forefathers. They are intimating that if this guy is better than Moses, then he ought to be able to do better things than Moses.
So far all he’s done is make some bread out of other bread. It lasted for a few hours and there were twelve baskets left over but as we know in our history, we remember that Moses gave us bread day after day after day and year after year.
Jesus says, wait a minute. It wasn’t Moses that give your forefathers the bread and Moses perfectly understood that. It wasn’t him who provided the bread rather God the great provider that gave the bread. What’s more the manna which came from Heaven provided sustenance for only a day. But the food that God the great provider gives, he says, gives life of Eternal dimensions.
“It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they say “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I AM: The Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. He says I myself am the bread of life, I am the sustenance that nourishes Spiritual life.
Jesus Christ came in order to transform life and to transform it in the spiritual dimensions. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it in all of its fullness and he speaks of a relationship of the Living God. I AM: The Bread of Life he who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
To come to Jesus Christ stresses not only a coming to but a coming from. Not only a coming to him but a coming away from that was once my lifestyle. So a man or woman realizing the emptiness of their spiritual experience realizing they need the nourishment and sustenance, realizing that mere attendance at church is not cutting it in terms of the deep needs of their lives, that man and that woman needs to come to Christ.
To come to him, to come away from all of that emptiness, to come to him in all of his fullness, to come away from spiritual famine and to come into plenty. This is something for which to be deeply grateful. This is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. This he say, I AM: The Bread of Life. I’m here so come to me and leave take broken life behind.
Can I ask you this morning? Have you come to Christ? He declares whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty, this is not an abstract statement. It is an appeal. Have you heard it in your heart? Have you heard it in your soul? And what was your response? Did you come to Him? Have you been nourished by the Bread of Life?
I ask this because Jesus tells the followers, you have seen me and still you do not truly believe! These followers have been around and seen his miracles just in the same way as we who come to hear them in the gospel. We open the pages of the scripture and we see Christ revealed in them. This verse is for us. You have seen me Jesus says to you this morning. As you sit in this church, he says will you see me there with you all over again?
Friends, we have an assurance; Jesus says all the father gives me will come to me. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, draws them to me.
What Jesus is saying is this that a person cannot be saved unless they come first to Christ. They cannot come to Christ unless they are given, they are sent. But all who are sent will certainly come. Whoever comes will not be driven away. But in fact they will be lovingly welcomed. Christ is absolutely certain that none who have given to him by the father will be left behind, if we come to Him!
Hear the Good News……………..
For this is the will of him who sent me that I will lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Dear ones, this is salvation, which has its origin in the eternal purposes of God and will have its’ conclusion in eternity with God. And the same body of Believers chosen before the foundation of the world is going to be the exact same body that will be in the presence of Christ at the End of the Age.
The scriptures teach us that our calling cannot be changed, our calling that cannot be revoked, that we have an inheritance that cannot be defiled, a foundation that cannot be shaken, a seal that cannot be broken and the life that cannot perish. Once again for my father’s will is that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And he will raise him up at the last day
Friends I present to you the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual Bread of Life, the one in whom there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Have you come to Him? Will you come to Him? Do you believe in him? If not what prevents you this morning from coming to Christ believing in him.
When you are filled with the fullness of God there is no room for anything else and that’s His desire for you. He wants you to be filled to overflowing, to be satisfied with His Living Bread, to have His Living Water and it’s not a physical. It’s a spiritual, eternal thing that can never be taken away from you.
It is yours and yours for eternity. Soon we will come and feast on the riches of Christ Jesus. The invitation that Christ extended to those who followed Him over 2,000 years ago is the same invitation He extends to us who follow Him today. So as we come to His Table today I encourage you to look to Him who receives you in spite of your sin, to believe in Him who can satisfy your emptiness and to come to Him who will sustain you all the way to glory.
What is this bread of life? It’s Jesus himself. Just like physical bread satisfies our deepest hunger cravings, so Jesus satisfies the longings of our hearts. He is the one who “fills us”, our deepest joy and most satisfying pleasure. Without Jesus, even the most sumptuous pleasures of the world are empty and unsatisfying. With Jesus, we can be content even in the midst of poverty.
Charles Spurgeon said: I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water. Lifting up her hands, she said as a blessing, “What, all this, and Christ too?” The old woman in the cottage truly understood what it meant that Christ is the bread of life. He satisfied her even though she had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water. “I AM” he says “The Bread of Life”. Amen