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John 6:22-70
Jesus, the Bread of Life
Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer
Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN
March 29 & 30, 2008
Scripture: John 6:22-70
No. 10: John’s Gospel
Have you heard the news?
A new restaurant has opened in Capernaum.
It is called “Jesus’ Place”.
You are invited to dine.
Patrons enjoy a spectacular view over the Sea of Galilee.
It is one of these specialty places that serve only one dish.
It is bread or more accurately, it’s Jesus.
For he explains, “I am the bread of life.” (v 35)
Today I though we would check out this restaurant and look over the menu and the customers. So please turn to John chapter 6 in your Bible and the message outline.
As we walk through the door we are presented with THE MENU
The first thing we notice is that it is divine.
A week ago Paul McDonald made chocolate cake for the Emmaus dinner. When I asked someone what it was like, she smiled and replied, “It’s divine.”
So is the bread at “Jesus’ Place.”
When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” we hear an echo of God’s self-definition in Exodus when he told Moses
“I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14)
By saying, “I am the bread of life” Jesus is telling us that he is God. So he is able to touch our life with divine power.
This is the first of seven “I ams” in John’s gospel.
The full list is as follows:
“I am the bread of life.”
“I am the light of the world.”
“I am the door.”
“I am the Good Shepherd.”
“I am the resurrection.”
“I am the way.”
“I am the vine.”
Each one of these titles tells us something new about Jesus, “the word who became flesh.”
Each provides a reason to trust him.
Remember that John has written his gospel, “That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30)
Jesus’ statement, “I am the bread of life” is so important it is repeated three times in the menu.
This means we are to pay very special attention.
A second observation we can make about the menu is that it is satisfying.
That is the nature of bread. It fills you up when you are hungry and because this is divine bread it gives lasting satisfaction.
So Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry.” (v 35)
Conversely if we don’t come to him or we keep him at arms’ length we will always be hungry.
We will have a nagging sense of dissatisfaction with life and distance from God.
It is instructive that Jesus didn’t say, “I am the dessert.” Desserts are wonderful, sometimes too wonderful, but we can’t live on dessert.
We need something more substantial and Jesus provides that.
If you are looking for lasting satisfaction then feed on him.
There is a great shortage of bread in some parts of the world today. This picture shows Egyptians standing in a bread line at a public oven in Giza last week.
Fights broke out among people waiting in long lines to buy a loaf. But the good news is there is no shortage of the bread of life. Jesus invites us to come and dine with him today.
Let’s turn our attention now to THE CUSTOMERS
There is always a variety of people in every restaurant and that is what we find at Jesus’ Place in Capernaum.
First we meet the bargain hunters.
These are the people who clip restaurant coupons or who come for dinner before six o’clock to get the early bird special.
There are a group of bargain hunters who surround Jesus.
They have been impressed by his feeding of the 5,000 in the first part of the chapter. They like the idea of a free lunch.
But Jesus knows they are looking for a bargain from him rather than to belong to him so he bluntly tells them, “You are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (v 26)
These are people more interested in material gain than spiritual nourishment.
Now it is understandable that we first come to Jesus to get our physical needs met. Jesus encourages this.
But if we stop there we are missing out on God’s best for he want to give us so much more.
I was once asked to a reception to meet a foreign dignitary.
It was a grand affair and they had plates of hors d’oeuvres.
I hadn’t eaten all day so I consumed a good number of them.
Suddenly the Master of Ceremonies explained that we would now move into the dining room for the main meal.
I hadn’t expected this. That is why I had filled up on the appetizers.
The result was that I missed out on the best part of the dinner.
Bargain hunters often do that.
Jesus says to us, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (v 27)
Just as there is a physical hunger that only physical food can satisfy, so there is a deeper spiritual hunger, in the pit of the human soul, that only spiritual food can nourish.
Jesus explains what this spiritual food is.
“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (v 33)
Jesus is describing himself for he came down from heaven at the incarnation to satisfy the hunger pangs of the world.
This was the Father’s purpose in sending his Son as Jesus tells us, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” (v 38)
Jesus then outlines exactly what the Father’s will is.
“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.” (v 40)
This eternal life is a sharing in the inner life of Jesus.
He offers this life to everyone who believes in him.
“Eternal” tells us what sort of life it is as well as the fact that it goes on after death. It is the life of the age to come.
Is there a hunger in your heart to feed on Jesus?
Did you realize that God has placed it there?
Have you had the experience of walking by a bakery?
You weren’t hungry until that moment but the smell of baking bread stimulates your appetite.
So God draws us to Jesus’ Place and the aroma of Christ creates a longing for him.
Listen to these comforting words.
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (v 37)
C. S. Lewis was once interviewed by a journalist who was writing about well known people who had converted to Christianity during their adult life. The theme was decision.
The journalist wanted to get Lewis to say how he had made his decision. But Lewis refused to put it in those terms.
He hadn’t made a decision he said. God had closed in on him and he could not escape, although he badly wanted to.
The nearest Lewis would get to using the language the reporter was interested in was to say, “I was decided upon.”
That is what Jesus is saying here.
The Father gives us to the Son who welcomes us to his restaurant.
The next group of customers we meet are the critics.
There are professional restaurant critics who write about their dining experience in newspapers and magazines.
But all of us enjoy being critics at times.
I had lunch last week with Andy Kumpel at a local restaurant.
There was a row of empty booths and we asked to sit in one.
We were informed they were all closed.
Instead we were seated at a table for eight just a few feet from the empty booths.
We had a good time criticizing their lack of customer care.
Thankfully a new waitress arrived and allowed us to move ten feet into of one of the empty booths.
There are no shortages of critics at Jesus’ Place.
Their main response appears to be grumbling.
“The Jews began to grumble about Jesus because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’.” (v 41)
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?” (v 61)
Jesus tells them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” (v 43)
There are always those who will grumble about God.
They resent his commandments which they find restricting.
They grumble about his word and his church.
I once worked with a lady who was a notorious grumbler.
We dreaded going to a restaurant with her because she always complained. She scolded the waitress and sent back the food. She ruined our enjoyment of the meal.
That is what these critics are doing at Jesus’ Place.
It is extraordinary when you think about it.
These grumblers are in the presence of the Son of God.
He was uniquely qualified to feed their souls as no one had ever done before. Yet all they can do is criticize.
Jesus tries to show them what they are missing when he says,
“I tell you the truth.” (v 4)
There are those words “Amen, amen” again.
Something important is coming.
Here it is. It is alternative to grumbling.
“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.” (v 48-50)
These grumblers like to look back on the good old days when the Israelites had received daily manna from God.
Jesus wants them to know these present days are even better for the food that comes from heaven now is not only physical but spiritual. It doesn’t just satisfy for a day but forever.
May God save us from a critical spirit when it comes to divine truth. We are in danger of missing so much.
Our pastoral team are often intrigued how we can receive two letters about the same service from people who had very different experiences.
One will rejoice in how God ministered to them through the choir, the band, the faith story or the message.
They will talk about the warm welcome they received.
The other person blasts the music, complains about the preacher’s accent and the unfriendliness of the greeters.
Now don’t get me wrong.
We always value constructive criticism and we learn from it.
But we do wonder if these two people went to different churches. May God give us a positive spirit which seeks to build up rather than tear down.
Let’s focus on what’s important as Jesus does here when he says, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (v 63)
Jesus identifies the root cause of this grumbling when he says, “There are some of you who do not believe.” (v 64)
He emphasized again, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”(v 65)
We need to ask the Father to enable us to enjoy this food because we can’t do it on our own.
It is a good idea at the beginning of each service to ask God to feed your soul. There is spiritual nourishment to be had at every service if we just look for it.
Then John adds a very sad comment, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (v 66)
It is a spiritual law that grumblers often become deserters.
Oh may we not turn our nose up at the bread of life but rather taste and see the Lord is good.
There is a final group of customers.
They are the well fed.
Simon Peter speaks for them when he says, “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.”
(v 68 & 69)
Give thanks if you can say that today.
It means that you can dine eternally on spiritual food.
Jesus now tells us how to get the most out of his restaurant.
“I tell you the truth, (there are those words ‘Amen, amen again. Something very important is about to follow)
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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (v 53-56)
The eating of Jesus flesh and drinking of his blood is a vivid even shocking illustration of what believing in him implies but it is drawing on the experience the 5000 had the previous day at Bethesda.
There they had munched on the miraculous meal.
They had accepted what had been offered to them and made it part of themselves.
Jesus is saying that is a picture of saving faith.
What does it mean to have the life of Jesus in our homes?
Well it is like food.
If we don’t eat we starve.
If we do we are satisfied.
To be physically healthy we need to eat every day and several times each day.
Feeding our faith requires the same routine.
We spend time with Jesus each day.
If you had not eaten since last weekend you would be very hungry now.
So going to church once a week is insufficient for a vibrant Christian life.
We need to be daily worshippers.
What do you think of when you hear those words “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood?”
Is it the Lord’s Supper?
It is very likely that we have here another form of the words of institution that the other gospel writers give us at the Last Supper. The reason we can say this with some confidence is that as John tells the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in this chapter he mentions that it was the season of the Passover.
The unleavened bread of the Passover reminded the Jews of God’s great act of deliverance in Exodus.
So how appropriate that the Jewish Passover becomes the Christian Eucharist.
The bread is once again a reminder of God’s act of deliverance.
The bread is now a symbol of the body of Jesus given up in sacrificial death that we might have life.
The purpose of the sacrament is that we might recognize in Christ’s crucified body and poured out blood the foundation of our life. That we might hang our hope on that body and blood.
Through our participation in the Lord’s Supper we have a relationship with Christ that is analogous to that of the Son and the Father. As Jesus the Son lives through the Father and is sustained by the Father, so we are sustained by the Son.
Immediately after World War II the Allied armies gathered up many hungry, homeless children and placed them in large camps.
There the children were abundantly fed and cared for.
However at night they did not sleep well.
They were restless and afraid.
Finally a psychologist hit on a solution. After the children were put to bed they were each given a slice of bread to hold.
That bread produced marvelous results.
The children slept soundly knowing they would have something to eat in the morning.
That assurance gave the child a calm and peaceful rest.
So Jesus puts bread in our hands and says, “Peace to you.”
That bread means we do not need to be afraid.
He has removed the threat of judgment.
Jesus, the bread of life, provides for our needs and will always be with us.