Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
02/02/2020P.M.
THE I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS
“I Am The Bread Of Life”
John 6.26-27, 6.47-51, 6.53-58 Matthew 14.13-16 & 20-21
Our Sunday Evening Studies are focused on the I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS.
We began our series standing in the foothills of Mount Sinai... Where we heard God say to Moses... I AM THAT I AM.
Three words in the Hebrew... Five in our English... Two in the Greek... ego eimi... ego a-me.
Because the Jews of Jesus’day used the Septuagint... The Greek Translation of the Old Testament Hebrew...These were Two Words that every Jewish child three to five years old had memorized.
So... When Jesus said... I AM... Every Jew knew He was saying... Iam God...
He was claiming to be…
• The God of Creation...
• The God of...Abraham... Isaac... Jacob...
• The God of the Exodus...
• The God of all Israel.
They could not deal with this claim... It was blasphemy to them... So much so that when said...
• They picked up stones to kill Him...
• Tried to throw Him from a cliff in Nazareth...
• Or crucify Him on a cross.
Tonight... We hear Jesus say... I am the Bread of Life.
This is found in John chapter six... In fact Jesus refers to Himself as...
• The Bread of Life...
• The Bread from Heaven...
• The Bread that gives Life...
Some twelve times in this chapter.
The context of this first ego a-me statement is the feeding of the five thousand.
Jesus’ popularity had increased to the point that large crowds were beginning to follow Him... Especially during the times He was performing the miraculous healings. To escape these crowds, He had crossed the Sea of Galilee to an area we know today as the Golan Heights.
Seeing the crowd... Jesus asked Phillip... Where are we gonna buy bread for these to eat?
Phillip said... We can’t... It would take 200 Denarii... Eight months’ wages… To give each a bite.
Andrew spoke up saying... Here’s a boy with five slices of bread and two small fish... But that’s it... How far would that go among so many?
Having them to sit down in groups... Jesus blesses the loaves and fish... And distributed them to over 5000 people. When they had eaten until filled... They gathered up twelve baskets of Barley Loaf Leftovers.
This event caused the people to want to make Jesus their King... Sensing this... Jesus withdrew into the mountain by Himself.
Thinking Jesus had gone back across the Lake to Capernaum... The Apostles strike out toward the other side in the dark. A storm ensues… And after they had rowed three or four miles... They knew their fate... But they see their salvation... Jesus walking on the water.
John says... As soon as He sets foot in the boat... They miraculously arrive at their destination.
The next morning... The crowd follows Jesus... At that point... Jesus begins what we know as the Bread of Life Discourse...
Let’s see what we can learn by reading some verses together…
First we note that it’s possible to follow Jesus for the wrong reason...
Read with me… Verses 26 & 27... I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.
Now to verse 35... Then Jesus declared... 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.
Their motive was wrong!
The problem THEN is the problem TODAY... People assume that the purpose of religion is to have God as a helper… One who provides us with ABUNDANCE AND HAPPINESS...
• Thorough things like material possessions...
• Good health...
• A promotion at work...
• Inner peace and prosperity.
In America today... We live in a society spiritually marked by what is called MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM... A Health and prosperity gospel.
There are five main tenents of this religious worldview...
• First… This worldview believes… There is a god… With a little “G”…A god who created the world and watches over human life... But is only one of many.
• A god that wants all people to be… Good... Nice… And Fair… To each other as taught in the Bible...
• In this religious system…The Central Goal is to be HAPPY and to FEEL GOOD ABOUT ONESELF… Have a good self-image.
• This worldview has no need for an omnipotent Jehovah God in our life except… Except… Except… When life tumbles in and He is needed to resolve our problem.
• Tenet number five… Good people go to heaven… Bad people go to hell.
Church… It’s amazing how many people… Many of whom are our neighbors… That live by this religious worldview… And the real problem… The real issue… Is that some of us are drawn into this kind of thinking.
A surprising number of us see God as an ambulance run… We only need Him when life tumbles in… When the road becomes rough… When life is tough!
Listen Church… THIS WORLDVIEW IS A JESUS-LESS BELIEF SYSTEM.
This Twenty-First Century American Spiritually HAS NO NEED FOR A SAVIOR.
• This worldview is about happiness not salvation…
• It’s about storing up treasurers… Accumulating stuff…
• Not the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus.
Jesus has no place or value in this Worldview… Except as He did to this crowd two-thousand years ago…Giving them… temporary fullness… Temporary satisfaction.
Listen!!... Eating the bread of this world has no everlasting benefit…
Worldly happiness has an expiration date… While eating the bread of life… Making Jesus our sustenance… Has eternal benefits… Even eternal life.
True happiness… Genuinely feeling good about self… Is knowing that…
• We are forgiven by the blood of Jesus…
• That God lives in us moment-by-moment… Providentially working on our behalf…
• And that we are Heaven Bound.
We can have this happiness and live in…
• Any culture…
• Any political system…
• With any measure of success…
• On any scale of material abundance… AMEN?
Church… It’s time we place Jesus back where He belongs in our Religious System… AS OUR God… SAVIOR… LORD… AND KING… Not as our Santa Claus.
Are we hungering and thirsting for the Bread of Life… For Jesus and His righteousness?… REALLY??
• Are we seeking first the Kingdom of God…
• Laying up treasures in Heaven…
• Seeking and saving the lost?
Listen to Jesus… DO NOT work for the… Food of this WORLD… Food that PERISHES… But for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son will give you.
Number two… Jesus tells this audience and us that our work is to BELIEVE IN HIM.
Church… Jesus did not come into the world… To Give Us Bread… BUT TO BE BREAD.
The bread of life is not something Jesus gives… BUT SOMETHING HE IS.
Note verses 47- 51… I tell you the truth, HE WHO BELIEVES HAS EVERLASTING LIFE. 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.
Paul affirms this salvation by faith in Ephesians chapter two…
I want you to listen to how Jesus is my and your Bread of Life… How that He DID NOT come to give us bread… BUT TO BE THE BREAD.
Here is Paul’s statement… As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no-one can boast.
Such a life can’t exist without Jesus… He is the grace… HE IS THE BREAD… HE IS THE LIFE… We hear Him say… I came that you might have life… and have it to the fullest… More abundantly.
Jesus tells us that Faith is a work…
There’s a big argument today… Are we saved by works?... Listen… Jesus says… If we do it right… faith is a work.
Believing in Jesus…Believing He is the Bread of Life… Is not simple MENTAL ASSENT… It entails much more… Listen to verse 53-58... 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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 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.
What a strange statement!!... What does it mean to… Eat the flesh… Drink the blood… of Jesus? The mind of those in our narrative went to cannibalism…
Many today think Jesus was referring to the Lord’s Supper…
Both are wrong!!… Eating His Flesh… Drinking His Blood… Is nothing short of our
• Making use of His atoning sacrifice…
• Accepting the terms of His forgiveness and salvation!…
• Becoming A Jesus Disciple!
Matthew Henry says… Eating and Drinking Jesus include four things…
One… It implies an appetite… It implies hungering and thirsting after Him and His lifestyle…His righteousness.
Two… It implies an application of Jesus to our life… Our conforming to His image… Having His… Heart… Disposition… Lifestyle.
Henry illustrates by saying…Bread looked upon will not nourish… But bread fed upon will.
Church… Our belief in Jesus must be strong enough that it compels us to appropriate Him INto our daily walk… Making Him our life.
Thirdly… We must delight in Jesus and His salvation.
Jesus must be our number one life priority… Seeking first His kingdom must consume us. Jesus must become our… BREAD… MEAT… DRINK… LIFE.
Four… Believing in Jesus… Eating Jesus… Means that we do all that we do in His name.
Paul says… Whatever you do… In word or deed… Do it all in the name of the Lord… By His authority.
So… In this discourse…
• Jesus is telling us that GOD HONORS A FAITH THAT WORKS…
• That affirms itself in a behavior…
• That imitates Jesus…
• A faith that leads to action.
It was James who wrote… What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
This leads us into our final point… We’re to be sensitive to the needs of others.
For this… I want to go to Matthew and Mark’s recording of this feeding event.
Read with me Matthew 14…Beginning with verse 13… When Jesus heard about what had happened to John the Baptist… He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEM AND HEALED THEIR SICK. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said,“This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away,so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat… Verse twenty… They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
We can’t read this and not see that the Bread of Life was compassionate.
He healed their sick… Fed them until they were satisfied.
How much like Jesus are we on this point?
If we are going to…
• Eat His Flesh…
• Drink His Blood…
• Assimilate Jesus into our… attitude… Disposition… And behavior…
We’re gonna have to be compassionate people… Amen?
I’m not gonna preach this…I’m gonna let Jesus do it for us.
Listen to Him as He tells us what it means to be compassionate people… When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord…
• When did we see you hungry and feed you…
• Or thirsty and give you something to drink?
• When did we see you a stranger and invite you in…
• Or needing clothes and clothe you?
• When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?
The King will reply… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Listen church…In this discourse… Jesus is teaching us that it is more blessed to give than receive… More blessed to feed than to be fed.
I hope Jesus is our Bread of Life tonight…
• I pray we are following Him for the right reason…
• That we’re exemplifying our faith by assimilating His… attitude…Disposition… Behavior… Into our daily walk…
• And that we are… TOUCHED BY… AND COMPASSINATE WITH… The needs of others… All others.
What do we need to do tonight?…
• Make Jesus our Bread of Life?…
• Express our faith in repentance and New Testament Baptism?
• As God’s people… Do we need to conform our thoughts and walk to be more like that of Jesus?
The invitation is ours as we stand and sing together.