The Bread of Life (John 6:25-59)

Jesus in His Own Words

The Bread of Life

John 6:25-59

 

One of the most significant questions Jesus ever posed to His followers is, "Who do you say that I am?" That is perhaps the most important question anyone will ever answer. The problem is, people have all kinds of distorted views of Jesus. As we saw last week, we all have this tendency to re-make Jesus in our own image.

 

So in this series, we're looking at how Jesus described Himself by looking at the seven places in the Gospel of John where he describes himself beginning with the words "I am..."

 

Today we're looking at the place where Jesus called himself "The Bread of Life." It's in John chapter 6, but before we read it, let me give a little context.

 

Right before this, Jesus performed one of his most famous miracles: He was by the side of the Sea of Galilee, teaching a huge group of people; there wasn't enough food; and somehow Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish, and he fed thousands of people. It was amazing!

 

So the next day, Jesus is on the other side of the lake with his disciples, and this crowd of people that experienced this miracle shows up looking for another meal. Beginning in verse 25 of John 6, we are told what happened. This is a long passage, so I'm going to skip over a few parts.

 

verses 25-35, 41-44, 51-54

So as soon as the crowd shows up, the first thing Jesus does is challenge their motives for coming. Notice again,

 

verse 26

 

In other words: I know why you guys are here. It's not because you saw Me do that miracle yesterday, and you want to find out more about Me. It's because you got some bread, and you're hungry for more. And in the rest of this passage he basically says, "You guys are aiming way too low. What I can give you is much more than you think I can."

 

I really believe that if Jesus were here, He would say the same exact thing to us. First of all, he knows our motives. He knows why every one of us decided to come to church today. He knows what we're looking for in life. And He would say to us, "You're aiming way too low. I can give you far more than you think I can."

 

So if you're open to that today, if you're willing to let Jesus expose your motives and give you a bigger vision of what He could mean to you, then listen closely because this message is for you.

 

Let me point out two fundamental things from this text. And both of them are really simple. Some people are seeking a full stomach and some people seek a full soul.

 

Let's start with the stomach.

 

1. Seeking a Full Stomach

 

Jesus says to this crowd, "I know why you came-you want more bread."

And as the conversation continues, He keeps trying to redirect their attention and get them to set their sights on something higher than bread.

 

For instance,

 

verse 27

 

That name "Son of Man" was a title for the Messiah-the promised Savior of the Jewish people-and the crowd knew that Jesus was applying that title to Himself. But they weren't ready to believe that.

 

verses 30-31

 

They know their Jewish history. They're talking about how God, during the time of Moses, provided for his people in the wilderness through a substance called manna. It was this white, wafer-like substance that appeared on the ground every morning. And they would gather it up and eat it.

 

So here's what the people are saying, "You gave us one meal! Moses gave our ancestors bread every day! Can you do that? Because if you start cranking out the bread every day, we might believe you." They were only thinking about physical food.

 

But Jesus wants them to think in spiritual terms!

 

verses 32-33

 

But again, they miss the point.

 

verse 34

 

 

They still think he's talking about food. They can't seem to lift their sights any higher than filling their stomachs. And they are so much like us.

 

Throughout this passage, physical bread represents the tangible needs that we have as human beings. And we have all kinds of needs. Food is one of them. But we also need money and shelter and transportation and companionship...all kinds of things.

 

So the bread represents the needs we have in life. Now let me ask you: are those bad things? Of course not! Jesus never says, "You need to grow up and stop eating!" He didn't say that because He knew that God designed us with stomachs. In fact, He had one himself.

 

He knew that God designed us with a need for money and clothing and companionship and it's all good and necessary. So he wasn't condemning them for wanting to eat. He was challenging them for never thinking any higher than that. Here they were in the presence of a man claiming to be the Messiah, and all they could think about was getting more bread. And Jesus tries to stretch their vision.

 

Why? What's the matter with going after the things in life that I need?

 

verse 27

 

Did you ever drink spoiled milk by accident? That'll wake you up in the morning. Take my advice and smell the milk before you drink it! Why? Because milk spoils. And you know what? So does everything else in this world. Even good things! They just don't last.

 

That's what Jesus is saying: "Don't let your life be consumed with the pursuit of things that spoil." That makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Don't give your life to temporary things.

 

Paul said the same thing in

 

2 Corinthians 4:8

 

The bread that Jesus had given them the day before was a good thing! By the way, it was Jesus' idea to feed them in the first place! But it was a temporary neal. The houses and cars and jobs and bodies that God gives us are good things, but they're temporary. So when we focus all our energy on those things, Jesus says we miss the most important thing!

 

And the lesson is to not focus so much on the gifts that you miss the Giver. After all, the gifts are temporary; the Giver is not.

 

So if you spend your life working for food that spoils-giving the best of who you are-your highest thoughts; your best energy-to your career and your home and your health-all good gifts from God!-but if you never seek higher things than that, you will reach the end of your life and you will feel empty, because you'll realize that none of it lasts.

 

And that leads us to the second point. Instead of seeking a full stomach,

 

2. Seek a Full Soul

 

Have you ever known someone who had the best of everything, but wasn't happy? I have.

 

I've known people who, whatever they desired, they went out and bought it. Bu they were miserable, never satisfied. Why is that? It is because we are not just physical beings.

 

That's what Jesus is teaching us in this text. We are not just physical beings. We are also spiritual beings. Therefore, even if our physical needs are fully met, there is a spiritual hunger that remains. So here's what Jesus is saying: "To fill the spiritual hunger in your soul, you need a different kind of bread. You need the Bread of Life."

 

So for the rest of the message, let's try to unpack what Jesus meant by that. Let me point out three things we are told about the Bread of Life. First of all,

 

- What it Is

 

Last week we pointed out how strange the teaching of Jesus was in that He didn't just claim to have answers for people, He claimed to be the answer. SAnd that's exactly what He does in

 

verse 35

 

In other words, Jesus says, "The one thing that your soul needs to be satisfied, the thing that will not spoil or go bad, is Me. It's not something I can give you. It's Me."

 

Isn't it interesting that Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem, which in the Hebrew means "house of bread." That was God's little signal that Messiah would be the One who would fill souls just like bread fills stomachs.

 

"I am the bread of life." So if that's true, here's what it means: what your soul needs most is not the right set of doctrines: the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, even the Ten Commandments, That's not what the human soul hungers for .

 

Lists and rules don't fill a soul. And your soul's not hungry for joining the right organization, or learning the right kind of meditation. Because listen: the Bread of Life is a person. So somehow, soul fullness comes when we connect our lives with this person named Jesus.

 

And once we have that, think about

 

- What it Gives Us

 

What does having the Bread of Life actually do for us? And the answer is right there in the title: the Bread of Life. So in this teaching, Jesus talks about two ways that he gives us life.

 

First, he gives us

 

- abundant life

 

verse 35

 

  1. He is not talking about physical hunger and thirst. He's talking about a sense of internal satisfaction in our hearts. Listen, you can be hungry and still be full. What do I mean by that? You may have physical hunger, but it fades away because of the experience you have with God. That is the spiritual discipline of fasting, by the way.

 

Remember, Jesus is the One Who said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

 

Your body may be hungry, but somehow your fellowship with God will fill you in a way that makes the physical hunger not matter.

 

There is a contentment and an inner peace that comes through a relationship with Christ, that is distinctly separate from the physical side of life. Jesus said in John 10:10, "I have come so people could have life, and have it abundantly."

 

And here's the amazing thing about our relationship with God, and some people never come to realize this: even when some of your other needs aren't being met, like you're short on money, or you're having family issue or you're fighting cancer, those things don't destroy you, because you have something deeper that's feeding you.

 

Jesus has this unique ability to give our lives depth and stability and satisfaction and it has nothing to do with our physical hunger and appetites. That is abundant life.

 

But there's another kind of life Jesus talks about here and that is

 

- Eternal life

 

verses 49-51

 

When you listen to the teaching of Jesus, He clearly taught that human life goes on after we physically die. We don't just cease to exist.

And we know that to be true also. We know our souls are meant for more than 70 or 80 years on this earth. But here's the sobering part: Jesus taught that when we physically die, we will experience either life in the presence of God for eternity, or we will experience spiritual death, which means being separated from God for eternity.

 

Jesus actually talked about that a lot. So in this passage he says the way to eternal life is through the Bread of Life. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever."

 

Does that mean that Christians are better than other people? Are they morally superior to other people? Not at all. After all, we're just beggars who've been handed some bread. That means we've got nothing to brag about. The Christian concept of salvation is very humbling.

 

In fact, if we're thinking clearly, the natural response would be to show other people where they can get some bread too because all of us are hungry.

 

So Jesus says, "Stop running after food that spoils." Have the wisdom to realize that you're a spiritual being, and you need to fill your soul. And the way to do that is through the Bread of Life, which is a person. It's Me, and once your have me, there will be a quality to your life and a quantity to your life that you can't find anywhere else. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever." So the final, obvious question is:

 

- How to Get It

 

There are two parts to that. First, think about

 

- God's part

 

God's part of the process is to draw us.

 

verse 44

 

God is in the business of stirring in people's hearts, and creating spiritual hunger in their souls. Man does not look for God so God takes it upon Himself to look for us. This same Jesus Who is the Bread of Life is the One Who said He came to seek and save the lost.

 

I was reading recently about a guy named Lamin Sanneh. He's a professor at Yale, but he grew up in Gambia, West Africa, in a completely Muslim community. He tells about how, as a teenager, he felt drawn to Jesus. He tried to fight it off, and he would go to bed thinking it would go away, but in the morning it would be as strong as ever. So he went out one day to walk by the ocean, and he said it was as if he heard this whisper, saying, "Don't be afraid."

 

In his own words, he said,

 

"Like a gentle nod, a wave of anticipation rose in me as I responded feebly to a long-delayed invitation, like rejoining a journey begun before my mother conceived me... I remember the sense of a door opening and a reassuring presence sweeping into my life... By the time I reached home my legs were heavy, and the next thing I knew I was tumbling to my knees in prayer to Jesus, pleading, imploring, begging for God to forgive me, to accept me, to teach me, to help me... I got up from my knees with the feeling that I was waking up on a new day... It was a new feeling of release and of freedom, infused with a sense of utter, serene peace.

I could speak about it only in terms of new life, of being born again."

 

And Lamin Sanneh has been following Christ and speaking out for Christ ever since. How does that happen to a kid growing up in an environment so hostile to Christ? It's supernatural. God draws us.

 

That's His part. So what about

 

- our part

 

verses 28-29

 

When God draws us, our part is to believe, to take Jesus at his word, and entrust our life to him. It doesn't mean we you every single question answered; it doesn't mean you fully understand it; but you know God is drawing you, and you recognize the utter uniqueness of Jesus. And you put your faith in him. That's our part. And once you make that decision, God says, "You are mine. Nothing can snatch you out of my hand."

 

However, every day after that, we still have a choice. We have to decide every day whether to run after food that spoils, or to keep eating the Bread of Life. I don't care how long you've been a believer; today you have to choose to trust in Christ, to lean on Him, to trust Him and to let his thoughts and his strength flow through you.

 

Let's pray.