“I Am the Bread of Life” [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“I Am the Bread of Life”

Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of John

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

January 21, 2024 :: John 6:35-71

Jesus is either bonkers or bread.

The things Jesus says! Who talks like this?! The things He says about Himself. We’re used to it. Some of us have been Christians for a very long time. Some of us haven’t known anything else. We’ve heard these things about Jesus all of our lives. So we’re used to Jesus talking like this about Himself.

But anybody else who talks like this either doesn’t really mean it (they are being silly or selling something) or if they do mean it, then they are crazy megalomaniacs.

In this passage, Jesus keeps insisting over and over again that He is the bread of life.

He says it in verse 35, then again in verse 48, and then something very similar in verse 51. And He says a whole lot of other incredible things to go along with it!

And the people listening to Jesus don’t know what do with what they are hearing. But Jesus doesn’t back down. Instead He says it more strongly and shockingly than ever and forces His listeners to make a decision.

Is Jesus bonkers or bread?

What do you think?

Let me remind you how we got to this point in the story. We’ve been studying chapter 6 of the Gospel of John every Sunday so far this year (in ‘24). And bread has been the big theme. Bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread. Bread everywhere.

Except at the beginning of the chapter when there was almost no bread at all. Remember this? There was this huge crowd, at least 5,000 people. And they were hungry, and Jesus wanted to feed them, so He did. He took 5 little barley biscuits and 2 little fish, and He multiplied them and fed the entire crowd.

Bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread. Bread everywhere! There were 12 basketfuls of bread being lugged around by the disciples afterwards.

That was the day before what Keagan read to us just now. Overnight [we read last week], Jesus sent His disciples in a boat across the lake, and then when a storm whipped up around the boat, Jesus walked across the lake Himself to join His disciples, walking on the water[!] and then seeing the boat safe to shore.

Now, if Jesus did those two miracles, then maybe [just maybe!] when He says big crazy things, they might be true?! But He does say some big crazy things!

On this day, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum. The crowd from the day before has found Him, and they want to be fed again. Jesus has gotten feisty and combative with them. He told them that all they really cared about was their bellies. They were missing the point of the bread.

The bread was supposed to be a sign, pointing them to a bread that lasts forever. And they keep missing the point. They’re like, “Great. A bread that lasts? Give us that from now on. We’re hungry. We just love your bread.”

And that’s when Jesus said (verse 35), “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. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.”

That’s a big claim and a big promise, and it’s a wonderful invitation.

“I am the bread of life.”

We said last week that there are seven great “I am” statements in the Gospel of John, and that this is the first of them. Jesus says, “I am” (Greek: “ego eimi”) and then fills in the blank with an awesome metaphor to truly understand His true identity.

Now, it is a metaphor. There’s a lot of metaphorical language in this chapter. Jesus is not saying that He is literally made out of wheat or barley or some other flour, maybe gluten free. He has not been baked into a loaf or cut into slices for toasting and making a sandwich.

It is a metaphor. But the metaphor is true. Jesus is the bread of life. He is what bread truly is.

What is bread? What does bread do?

Well, fundamentally, it keeps us alive. Bread is food, and we need food to live. Bread stands for the simplest of food that sustains life. It is the fuel that keeps humans going. And if we run out of food, we run out of life.

And Jesus says that He is, in some ultimate way, the true source of life. He is the bread of life. Listen to verse 35 again. “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.”

I’ve got four points of application this morning, and here’s the first one.

Feed on the bread of life and:

#1. BE TRULY SATISFIED FOREVER.

Now notice how He says that He is the bread of life and that what we need to do about that is to “come to” Him and to “believe in” Him.

In this verse, our “feeding on” Him is not literal or physical. That’s important, I think, to keep in mind when we get a little further into the passage, and his language becomes even more shocking.

Here Jesus is inviting us to come to Him (He’s going to say that again and again) and to believe in Him–which is the theme of this whole Gospel, isn’t it? It’s written so that we might believe in Him so that we might have life in His name.

Faith (believing) leads to life (living). He is inviting us to believe that He is the bread that gives life. And it’s a life that is truly satisfying. It’s not here today and gone tomorrow. “He who comes to me [Jesus] will never go hungry, and he who believes in me [Jesus] will nver be thirsty.”

We talked about this last week. Jesus is truly satisfying forever. He is not just some kind of food for our bodies but food for our souls.

Some of these people Jesus is talking to still have His miraculous bread in their tummies digesting as He teaches. [If it’s miraculous bread, does that make it Wonder Bread?] But they are going to be hungry again. In fact, most of them are. Jesus knows that they are looking for another meal.

And Jesus knows that we chase after all kinds of things that do not satisfy. But He does satisfy. And He does satisfy forever.

What are you tempted to chase as your cheap substitute for the bread of life?

There’s a bunch of usual suspects: Money, Possessions, Fame, Status, Sex, Pleasure, Happiness. Those are all good things but we can easily treat them as the most important thing that we believe will give us true life and satisfaction. But when we do, we always end up empty.

Last week, I told you that Heather asked me what I’ve been chasing and that I didn’t want to think about it. I’d rather avoid that. But I did think about it this week, and one of my big ones recently has been the approval of others. I chase that around like it’s going to keep me alive and make feel good forever. I like to be liked and love to be loved. But all it takes is for someone to change their opinion of me, and I’m back to square one or in the negative zone. There’s no life there. It’s fake bread. Bread that will not last.

But if I come to Jesus and believe in Jesus, I will never go hungry and never be thirsty–forever. He will be my food. He will be my meal. Forever.

It doesn’t mean that I won’t feel longings on this side of eternity, but that there will be no longing that He will not fill both now and ultimately forever. Does that make sense?

You might think it’s bonkers. But Christians have believed it be true now for 2,000 years, and I’m one of them.

Here’s number two.

Feed on the Bread of Life and:

#2. BE TRULY SAFE FOREVER.

Listen to the amazing promises that Jesus makes in verse 37:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that 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 him up at the last day.’”

What precious words!!

Notice all of the repetition there. What did you hear get repeated?

There’s “come to me” language that is what it means to “feed on the Bread of Life.” “Come to me.” That’s faith. He says that again and again. “Come to me.”

And also “come down from heaven.” He’s going to repeat that like six times in this passage. He has “come down from heaven.”

And there’s God’s will. “To do the will of him who sent me,” “And this is the will of him who sent me.” That’s the Father sending the Son. He talks about that a lot in this book!

And the other phrase that gets repeated is “I will raise him up at the last day.” “I will raise him up at the last day.”

And He’s talking there about everyone who comes to Him in faith.

If you and I come to the Son in faith, then the Son will raise us up at the last day.

That’s the resurrection. [Like we learned about in chapter 5.] Even if we die, one day Jesus will raise us from the dead.

That’s how safe we are! Even if we die, we are safe, because Jesus will raise us up at the last day. And He will not fail. Did you hear that? Did you hear how safe you are if you believe in Jesus? Listen again. Verse 37.

“All that the Father gives me will come to me [what percentage is that? 100%], and whoever comes to me I will never drive away [what percentage is that? 100%]. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me [what’s the percentage there?], 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 him up at the last day.'"

What’s the percentage there? How many of Jesus true disciples will be raised up at the last day? 100% of them!

“All the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (v.37).

So come to Him, right? Feed on the Bread of Life and be truly safe forever.

Some people are afraid that they are not a part of the chosen. That they are not elect. And so they are afraid to come to Jesus and put their faith in Him in case it turns out that He doesn’t want them.

But that’s not what the bibical doctrine of election teaches. The biblical doctrine of election teaches that we should come to Jesus and put our faith in Him. And trust in Him and feed on Him (so to speak).

And if we come to Him, He will receive us. He will never drive us away.

And if we truly come to Him, then we’ll find out that it was the Father that drew us to Him in the first place. That, in fact, we were given to the Son by the Father. Given!

And that biblical doctrine of election teaches that none of those who have been given will be lost.

No, we will be raised up at the last day. Look at verse 40 again. “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 him up at the last day.”

And what a day that will be! Safe forever and ever and ever.

So, come. Come feed on Bread of Life.

Does that sound bonkers to you? That is the gospel.

Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. That’s John 3:16. That’s John 5:24. Right? “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

What does the next verse say? “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (5:25).

“I will raise him up at the last day.” Do you believe that? This is an invitation to believe and be saved and be truly safe forever. ....

The Jews in that synagogue in Capernaum did not believe.

They listened to what Jesus had to say, these wonderful words, and their response was to grumble. Look at verse 41.

“At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?’”

“He hasn’t ‘come down from heaven.’ He’s come over from Nazareth. Isn’t Joseph his daddy? We know this guy.”

Isn’t it ironic that the children of Israel are grumbling about bread from heaven? They did that with the manna, too. They are hostile. They are rejecting Jesus’ claims. They are saying that what He’s saying is bonkers. They don’t know about the Virgin Conception and Virgin Birth. They don’t believe that He has come down from heaven. They don’t see how He could be the Bread of Life.

But He is. And Jesus knows it. That’s why He says (v.43):

“‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.” (vv.43-48).

Notice how Jesus repeats Himself. He reiterates that salvation is, in the first place, the work of God. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

But that isn’t to keep us from coming to Him but to let us know why we do. And if we do, then the promise is that we will be raised up at the last day.

That’s what the Bible means in Isaiah 54, verse 13, “They will all be taught by God” that is that “Everyone who listens to the [God] Father and learns from him comes to” God the Son, Jesus. And how do we listen to the Father? We look to the Son because He’s actually seen the Father and shows us what He is like.

That’s John 1:18 all over again, isn’t it? “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18 NIVO). We just studied that together on Christmas Eve.

The Son shows us the Father who draws us to come to the Son. And when we do, we get everlasting life. Because the Jesus is the Bread of Life.

Point Number Three.

Feed on the Bread of Life and:

#3. BE TRULY ALIVE FOREVER.

Listen as Jesus says it all again. Verse 49.

“I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’” (Vv.48-51).

Bread, manna, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread!

The Jews’ ate the original bread from heaven which was a wonderful gift from God, but then they died in the wilderness. But God has now sent a new bread down from heaven that is like manna but even better. This is bread that if you ingest it, you will not die!

It’s living bread! It’s not just bread that gives life, it’s bread that is alive. And if you feed on this living bread, you will live forever. And this bread is Jesus. And this bread is His flesh...which He will give for the life of the world. Because God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son.

What’s He talking about? He’s talking about the Cross. He’s talking about giving His life so that we might live. And live forever.

Do you believe in that?

The Jews did not. They couldn’t accept what He was laying down. They thought he was talking bonkers. Maybe talking cannibalism? Look at verse 52.

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’”

That’s the biggest misunderstanding yet in the Gospel of John. It’s not just how can a man go back into His mommy’s tummy to be born again. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

But Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh, I don’t really mean that.” He goes all in. Verse 53.

“Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

The things Jesus says!!!

So, what does He mean? Whenever I read this, my mind always goes to the Lord’s Supper, but I don’t think that’s what He’s really talking about. He isn’t talking about communion here. This is long before that last supper in the Upper Room.

He’s just using strikingly strong language to talk about true faith, isn’t He? He’s just saying the same thing He said in verse 35. There He said we need to come to Him and believe in Him, that’s what it means to feed on the bread of life.

Look at these verses 53 and compare it to verse 40. Verse 40 said, “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 him up at the last day.”

Verses 53 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

They’re saying the same thing. Jesus is just using extreme language to press home the point.

He’s not saying that you need to physically eat His body or drink His blood. Christianity is not cannibalism. [No, ewww!]

He is saying that true faith fully internalizes Jesus.

True faith treats Jesus like He’s the bread we need to live.

True faith looks to the blood of Jesus, His sacrificial death on the Cross, as our only hope. Without it we will die in our sins of spiritual thirst. But with it, we will be raised up on the last day.

It’s a metaphor, but what a powerful metaphor!!!

That’s why He says in verse 55, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

He doesn’t mean that His flesh is real food in the sense that you eat it physically. He means that His flesh is real true food in the sense that this is one of the reasons why the thing of food exists in the first place.

Food is a metaphor for Jesus!

Drink is a metaphor for Jesus!

We take those things in to remind us that we need to truly take in Jesus.

Does that make sense? Understood that way, it does help us when we think about the Lord’s Supper. Taking in the bread and drinking from the cup reminds us that we need to fully internalize Jesus. That true faith fully internalizes Jesus.

But He’s not saying that we need to take communion to be saved.

That’s about the opposite of what He’s saying!

He’s saying that we need to receive Jesus by faith and find our life in Jesus now and forever. V.56

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. [Mutual indwelling.] Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.’”

We could spend an hour just marinating in those words.

There are words of relationship there. An eternal life-changing relationship. We “remain” or “abide” or “live” in Jesus, and He lives in us.

And there is so much life in there. The Father (who sent the Son) is the “living Father.” He’s alive with life-in-Himself (remember that from chapter 5), and He gives life to the Son eternally (remember that from chapter 5, we call it eternal generation) and so anyone who “feeds on Jesus” (or comes to Him, or looks to Him, or believes in Him–all the same thing) will live because of Him.

And live forever! Forever. Forever.

Do you believe that? Or do you think it’s bonkers? Those are the only two choices.

The Jews thought it was bonkers. And so did even some of Jesus’s followers. Look at verse 59.

“He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’”

This is hard. It’s hard to understand, at least at first. The language is so extreme. It almost sounds like cannibalism. But even after you understand it, it’s hard to accept.

Because it means you have to believe that Jesus and Jesus alone is the Bread of Life.

That He is the source of true satisfaction forever.

That He is the source of true salvation forever.

That He is the source of true life forever.

And that if you don’t receive Him, if you don’t take Him, if you don’t come to, believe in, look to...if you don’t feed on Him, taking Him into you fully, then you will be lost and not raised up on the last day. Those are the only two options.

It is a hard teaching. And some who had been following Jesus around decided that they were out. “I’m out.”

Many are doing that today. My friend Nick Boonstra who is the pastor at Blue Course Community Church, the EFCA Church in State College, told me and a bunch of other district pastors this week about a book called The Great Dechurching describes a phenomenon that is taking place across our country.

Nick reported that the book says, “More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and Billy Graham crusades combined.”

And the book tells some of the sociological reasons for that and some of the spiritual ones and gives some advice about how the church should try to reach out in the days ahead.

Some of those folks will return. Some of them have decided that following Jesus is not worth it. That following Jesus is bonkers. “He is not the Bread of Life.”

This did not and does not take Jesus by surprise. V.61

“Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! [I came down from heaven. At some point, I’ll go back up. Would that change things for you?] The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.’” (vv.61-65).

Jesus is not surprised. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no. He had known it was going to be like this and even who was going to be like this. But it still made Him sad. V.66

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)”

And that’s the first we’ve learned about that defection which is still to come. These disciples turned out to only be in it for the loaves and not for the Bread of Life. They abandoned Him. They turned back. They decided that the whole thing was bonkers.

But Peter did not. He said, “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” “You have the words of eternal life.”

You are the Bread of Life!

What do you think? Jesus is either bonkers or bread. And we all have to decide which one we think is true.

Here’s point number four which is what gets my vote and what I want for all of us here.

Feed on the Bread of Life and:

#4. DON’T TURN BACK.

I think Jesus is bread.

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