THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"I Am the Bread of Life”
Rev.
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
Who is Jesus? Why is He so precious to believers? What is to be found in Jesus? What is it to be united in Him so that when
you are united to Him you find Him wonderfully satisfying?
Jesus Christ
Himself furnishes the answers to these questions in the Gospel According to
John. Seven times in that Gospel Jesus
identifies Himself and what He is to believers.
He does so in the words, “I am.”
They are referred to as the “I Am’s of
Jesus.” I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheepfold. I am the good Shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine.
We would like to
begin a series of messages on the I Am’s of
Jesus. We begin today with the one that is recorded for us in
John 6:35
where Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he
that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.”
Jesus had just
performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 plus women and children. When He did that, the people were filled with
Messianic hope. “This is the one who
will help us. This is the one who will
restore
The Lord, knowing
then that they wanted to make Him an earthly king, immediately sent the crowd
away that day, sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a boat, and He
Himself departed quickly up into a mountain to pray.
It was the next
day, as He was upon the streets of
But the Lord
admonishes them. He says to them,
“You’re seeking Me for the wrong reasons. You’re seeking Me
for earthly reasons, for material things.
You think that I am an outlet, one who is able to give to you all that
you would want in terms of the earthly, in terms of food or wealth or
prominence or power—the earthly things.”
He says to them, “You must not seek Me for
those reasons.”
In verses 26 and 27
we read, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles [that is, truly saw and
understood the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000], but because ye did eat of
the loaves, and were filled. Labor not
for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you: for him hath God
the Father sealed.”
Literally, Jesus says,
“You are seeking Me because you were filled (the word
filled is the “feeding of cattle,” in other words, you are coming after Me for
the same reason cattle come to the farmer.
They come because their bellies are hungry). That is why you are coming to Me. You must not do
that. You must come seeking the right
food. You must know your true need. You must not seek the bread that molds and
grows stale and fills your earthly belly.
But you must seek an eternal food, food for your soul. You must seek Me
because I am the Bread that comes down from heaven.”
Jesus wanted them,
and wants us, to be thinking of manna—the bread that God gave to
Yes, said Jesus,
just like bread that fills the earthly need, so I am the Bread, but I fill not
simply an earthly need, I fill an eternal need.
I am come down from heaven. God
has sent Me. He
has sent Me as Savior, as the only who can fill your
soul with what you need to satisfy you to life eternal. I am the bread of life. All earthly bread is but a picture of Me. I am the One, the
only One, who is able to satisfy the hunger of the soul.
When He says that
He is the Bread of Life, Jesus is saying three things about Himself. He is saying, (1) He is absolutely necessary
for salvation. Bread in the Bible
represents necessity. Bread in the Bible
represents what is essential. Apart from
bread, apart from food, we die. So we
are taught to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Ask God for your necessities of life. Jesus says, “I am absolutely necessary for
your soul. You cannot live with God, you
cannot have peace, you cannot have satisfaction in your soul, you cannot be saved
apart from Me.
I am the Bread of life.” You may
want many things: health, a worry-free
life, your bills paid, perhaps you want a wife or a husband. But you must have Jesus or you die. He is necessary.
(2) When He says He
is the Bread of life, He is saying that He is a daily food. There are some foods that you eat on certain
occasions: turkey on Thanksgiving, or
whatever customs you have. But bread is
a daily necessity. Without daily food we
grow weak and anemic and faint and starve.
That is what Jesus is. You need
Him, not once in a while, not occasionally, not quarterly, not six times a
year, but every day. Without Him you are
weak and faint.
(3) When He says,
“I am the Bread of life,” He proclaims that He alone can satisfy. For bread satisfies hunger. There are other foods that we might eat that
do not satisfy the hunger—the candy, the cake, and the chocolate. Jesus says, “I am that which satisfies. I am that which fills your every need, all
your want relieving. Jesus, as the Bread
of life, is absolutely necessary. We
must know Him and have Him every day and moment. And He alone can satisfy.
But how could Jesus
say that? How could He say, “I am the necessity. You must
know Me and have Me each day of your life. And I alone can satisfy the deepest needs of
your soul.” How could He say that?
First of all, let
us remember that He is God. Maybe you
thought of that already in the “I am” statements of the Lord. When He says, “I am the Bread of life,” the
words “I am” already identify Him as Jehovah.
For one of the names of God is:
“I AM THAT I AM.” Jesus is the
very Son of God, God of God, eternal God. Therefore, He alone can save. He must be our portion every day, and He
alone can satisfy our souls.
But secondly, Jesus
is God in the flesh. He says in verse 33 of
John 6
that He is the Bread of God that cometh down from heaven and giveth His life for the world. Jesus is the true Bread because, as the Son
of God, He came forth from the virgin’s womb to represent us and to give
Himself for us. Therefore Jesus is able
to say, “I am the Bread of life. I am
the only One who can satisfy your deepest need.
I am the only One whom you must have.”
And that is because Jesus Christ is our atonement for sin, the only
atonement for sin. He sacrificed Himself
for His children upon the cross.
As the Bread of life,
He must be prepared. Christ is prepared
for the feast of our souls. He becomes
the feast of our souls by giving Himself up in His own body upon the cross of
You must eat
Him. You must partake of Him. You must eat the Bread of life.
As in the physical
realm it is not by looking at bread, but it is by eating the
bread, that you are satisfied—so also today, by faith, God’s wonderful gift, we
must believe on Him. We must partake
of Him.
Today there are
many who want to look at Jesus.
There are many who want to debate and discuss about Jesus. There are many, even in the church, who
defend the truth but who never rely upon Him personally, through faith. There are many who wish to analyze Him at a
safe distance. There are others who want
to avoid Him, perhaps, because of the conviction of their sin. There are some who would like to admire Him
from a distance. But Jesus says, “No,
you must be united to Me. You must eat Me.”
What does it mean, that we must partake of Jesus? Jesus said, “I am the Bread of life. He that cometh to Me
shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” He said, “You partake of Me
by coming to Me in faith. You must come
and believe in Me.”
But how do we do
that?
First of all, we do
that, Jesus made very plain, as the work of God (v. 29). “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent.” Believing on Jesus is a work of
God performed in you. It is not your
work. It is God’s work, worked in you. It is a work in which God gives us to know,
by the Holy Spirit, a spiritual hunger.
It is a work in which we recognize that we are empty, that we are
guilty, that because of our sins we should perish eternally before a just
God. But it is also a work of God
whereby we know that in Him, and in Him alone—through His cross—we are
forgiven. We are reconciled to God
through His cross. We are made holy and
righteous and pardoned.
Through the gift of
faith we come to Jesus Christ and we partake of Him. And through faith we find in Jesus Christ
perfect satisfaction, the food for our souls.
We come to Him whom we need. We
come to Him in the Word as He proclaims Himself in His Word. We come to Him through a true and living
faith. We confess, “Lord, I’m empty, I’m
perishing, I am a sinner. I would die of
myself. There is nothing I can do to
save myself. There is nothing in the
world that can feed my soul. There is
nothing that can take away that gnawing ache of my sins. I need Thee.
I need Thee every day. I need
Thee desperately. I need Thee as the
Bread of life.”
Now,
if you said in response to that, “But I can’t. I can’t come to Him. I can’t believe in Him of myself,” you would
be right. You would be correct. If you did not bring that up, I would bring
that up to you right now. You and I
cannot come to Jesus Christ of ourselves.
You and I will not come to Jesus Christ of ourselves. You and I will never, of ourselves,
say, “Christ, you are the satisfaction of my soul. You are the fullness. You are everything to me. You are all that I need.” We will not say that.
We are the same as
the people of
Well, is it
hopeless, then? No! Listen. Jesus says in verse 44 of
John 6
,
“No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him: and
I will raise him up at the last day.” We
do come. We do
believe. We do hunger after Jesus
Christ. We are satisfied in Christ. We do receive Him and partake of Him and He
becomes the substance of our entire souls.
And our joy! We do. Because of the Father. The Father, said
Jesus, will draw irresistibly, by His power, love, and grace, all those whom He
hath given Me in His will of eternal election.
For salvation is entirely of God the Father. Through the Father, by His mighty grace, we
are brought to Christ.
You ask, “Is that
me? Am I one who was brought to Christ
to believe in Him? Was this work of God
wrought in me?”
Do you feel this
hunger? Do you know this spiritual
emptiness? Do you confess, “I am a
sinner and there is nothing that can take away the ache, the hunger, the
inadequacy that I have as a sinner.
Nothing in all the world. There is nothing that I can do. Christ alone is the Bread of life. Without Him I die. In Him I live.”
Do you say
that? I did not ask, do you say that as
strongly as you ought to? I did not ask, do you feel that as strongly as you should? But, do you know that? Do you know that of yourself you are a
poverty-stricken, empty, dead sinner and that Jesus alone can satisfy all the
wants of your heart and all the needs of your soul?
That is the work of
God’s grace. You are His. Believe in Him. Come to Him.
Find in Christ the satisfaction of your heart and soul. You will never hunger. You will never thirst again. He can satisfy.
And He does
satisfy. We experience that, too. Physically, when a person is starving, and he
is given bread, he experiences, he knows, that the
bread has satisfied him. So also we know
that Christ satisfies us. He fills us
with the assurance of the pardon of sin.
He gives us to taste the richest foods of righteousness and perfect
satisfaction for our sins. He reveals to
us the eternal love and compassion of God.
He is the One who feeds our soul to life eternal.
Yes, we will die
physically unless the Lord Jesus returns first.
But physical death will not destroy us. Physical death now has become a servant to
set us free from our sinful nature and to bring us into the presence of our
King and Lord in all of His glory. Then
we shall have infinite and perfect fullness.
All our needs will be met perfectly in Jesus Christ. We will never know another ache. We will never hunger in our souls. But also now, in the faithfulness of God in
Jesus Christ, we enjoy Christ every day.
And in Jesus Christ our needs are met and satisfied. We are filled with the Bread of life.
Hear Him. “I am the Bread of life. He that cometh to Me
shall never hunger. And he that
believeth on Me shall never thirst.”
Let us pray.
Father, seal the
Word of God to our hearts today. And
bless that Word to our hearts and give us great joy and thankfulness to Thee
for Thou hast given Jesus—the Bread of life.
In His name we pray, Amen.