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I Am the Bread of Life | 30-36

Jesus has just made some high claims about himself. To do the work of God and receive eternal life – you have to believe in Jesus.

So they want some proof.

John 6:30–31 ESV

³⁰ So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

Give us a sign. Show us why we should believe in you. Show us something like Moses giving our fathers manna in the wilderness. If you want us to believe in you, make it easy for us.

You might be scratching your head at this point wondering how they could possibly be asking Jesus for a sign right now. Didn’t they just see him take five loaves and two fish and feed 5,000 people? Isn’t that why they were chasing after him in the first place?

Maybe they didn’t realize where all that food came from, or better yet – maybe they’re following their father’s footsteps. when they quote ‘what is written’ about the bread from heaven, they’re referring to Exodus 16 and the first time Israel ate manna.

It’s one of the low points in Israel’s history with God right after the Exodus.

Despite the 10 plagues that freed them from slavery
Despite crossing the Red Sea and then watching it come down on the people chasing after them
Despite God giving them an abundance of water in a dry desert

Exodus 16:2–4 ESV

² And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, ³ and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

God feeds them bread from heaven, which they’re cool with for awhile, until they even start grumbling about free food falling from the sky.

This crowd in John 6 is following the footsteps of their fathers. They’ll be confused about Jesus as the bread of life, just as Israel was confused as to what the manna was. They’ll grumble and complain about Jesus as the source of their life just as Israel complained about having nothing but manna.

But as much as these people complain about Jesus, he’s the only one who can give them what they need.

The Bread of God

John 6:32–33 NIV

³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, not “Moses who has given you bread from heaven”, but “my Father gives you true bread from heaven.” ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

They want a sign like the manna, but Jesus says I’ll do you one better

Don’t look for the bread Moses gave
Look for the bread my Father is giving out right now

Lift your eyes up, Jesus is saying. Get your mind off of this idea of Moses giving manna as a sign because I’ve got a better sign. I’ve got true bread from God himself.

That bread from Moses, Jesus mentions later in verse 49, didn’t solve the ultimate problem. The fathers in the wilderness ate that bread and died. This new bread from heaven is true bread – food that will give eternal life.

John 6:34–35 ESV

³⁴ They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” ³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

That true bread isn’t bread at all! It’s Jesus! He’s the only one who can stop the hungering and thirsting in life.

He’s quoting from a passage in Isaiah.

Isaiah 55:1–2 ESV

¹ “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Here’s how Jesus can give satisfaction

John 6:37–40 ESV

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

The problem of chasing after our desires is that they all end in death. None of them will save you from dying and none of them will follow you into the afterlife.

But Jesus mentions three times in these verses that he’s come to “raise him up on the last day.” And this is none other than the Father’s will. If you want satisfaction, if you want something that has meaning in life, if you want anything that persists after death instead of losing everything – it’s God’s will that you look to the Son and believe in him.

Connect

Why do we labor for things that don’t satisfy?

In my Wednesday class we’ve been studying Ecclesiastes which begins with a very controversial point:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV

² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Everything is empty, it fades, it has no lasting value, it does you no good in the end.

So we explored that idea and tried to come up with things that do give us meaning in life – things that don’t fade away.

The good life ends in a nursing home
Your legacy is taken over and destroyed by an idiot who inherited it all
Your grand-kids visit you as much as you visited yours
Your marriage ends in either divorce or death

Our own death robs us of all these things

Good people die just like bad ones
Your family buries you and moves on with life
In death you have absolutely nothing to hold onto

So we all agreed. Without the prospect of eternal life, all of those things are meaningless. The only thing that can ever give your life value is your relationship with Jesus.

So why do we spend so much time chasing after things that we just admitted have no value?

Transition

The crowds should be interested in all of this. We should be interested in this eternal life. Yet, Jesus says:

John 6:36 ESV

³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

We see who Jesus is – the Son of God come down from heaven to give us eternal life.

But do we believe it?

If you believe something to be true, your behavior is likely to change. If i believe that someone is going to attempt to break into my house tonight then all the girls are out and I’m inviting Wes over for a sleepover.

So do we believe that Jesus is the only one who can fill that empty void in our life if we never pursue him as if he could?

Drawn by God | 37-46

The crowds listening to Jesus certainly didn’t think he was capable of doing anything for them.

John 6:41–42 ESV

⁴¹ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

The crowds he’s just fed, who’ve chased him from one side of the sea to the other, are now grumbling about him.

We like the healing
We like the food

But this whole idea of only approaching God through you is ridiculous. We know your parents, we know where you grew up. You aren’t from heaven – you’re just like us.

It’s Just the Same Today.

Some people resent Jesus. It’s easy to forget that with most criticism being leveled against his followers – but a lot of people truly and honestly hate Jesus for the claims that he makes.

How dare some wild savage claim that he’s the only good person who has ever lived, and that he alone can talk God out of sending you to hell, but he won’t unless you completely and utterly submit yourself to him. No wonder he hung out with prostitutes and sinners – they reinforced his self-righteous image. No wonder Pharisees hated him – they saw how ridiculous his claims were.

That’s the gist of quite a few complaints I read online.

Plenty of people who hear Jesus, both ancient and modern, have hated the idea that the only way to know God is by knowing Jesus and that we have to give up everything to follow him.

But that’s exactly what Jesus is claiming here.

John 6:43–45 ESV

⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

The idea of not being able to come to Jesus unless first drawn by God strikes many people as predestination or unconditional election. But look at how God is drawing people to himself. verse 44 is parallel with verse 45

A person is drawn to God by being taught by him. Those taught by God ultimately come to Jesus.

But then the question becomes – how does one hear and learn from the Father?

Let’s look back at John 5:37-38

John 5:37–38 ESV

³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, ³⁸ and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

If you want to be drawn to God, listen to God, learn from God – you have to listen to Jesus for the simple reason of verse 46:

John 6:46 ESV

⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.

If we want that eternal food then we have to stop trusting in ourselves, and look to Jesus as the only one who can provide it.

Eating Jesus’ Flesh and Blood | 47-59

But hearing and learning from Jesus is much more than an academic exercise:

John 6:47–58 ESV

⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Jesus has been calling himself the bread of life – and now he really leans into that metaphor. Bread’s only good for you if you eat it – and Jesus expects that you eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus doesn’t just provide the meal – he is the meal.

John 6:60 ESV

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”

This isn’t just a hard saying because it’s cannibalistic. It’s hard because the disciples understood the point underneath this metaphor.

The food that we eat sustains us and literally becomes a part of us. You are what you eat! If you weighed 99 lbs and ate 1 lb of nachos you’d be 1% nachos.

But we also understand it as a metaphor. What you take in is what you become.

– You are what you watch – 13 Reasons Why and a 30% increase in suicide the next month

– You are who you spend time with – as we pick up the habits and interests of our friends

What percentage of Jesus are you?

The disciples say that Jesus is teaching hard things because Jesus isn’t just saying “Follow me.” He’s saying “Become me.”

Jesus is the very substance of our life

More than something we like
More than someone we visit
More than something we follow
We live and breathe Jesus – he is everything that sustains, energizes, and propels us forward

And that’s difficult.

Trusting God Gives Up Control

We want to be the master’s of our own destiny. It’s ingrained in our cultural DNA.

We’re a democracy that rebelled against the king
We have our rights which shall not be infringed upon
State lines mean nothing in the quest for fireworks
Down with the HOA’s that try to tell us what color to paint our sheds!

We love our independence and freedom. God says give that all to him. Stop being you, and start being Jesus. Let him make the decisions. And we really don’t like those decisions:

Matthew 5:44 CSB

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 10:39 CSB

³⁹ Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.

Matthew 20:16 CSB

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

2 Corinthians 12:10 CSB

¹⁰ So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Being like Jesus is just so counter-intuitive it has the full appearance of foolishness to most.

Jesus demands that you become less of yourself and more like him.

And then as we strive to be like him, we make ourselves even less as serve and sacrifice for others.

At the end of the day, is there any me left?

And so people will reject Jesus and go chasing after their desires because that’s their authentic self. Those desires fulfill them.

But remember where those wants and desires lead you. The crowds chased after Jesus because they wanted food. They asked Jesus to do another sign like feeding them manna. So Jesus has to remind them:

John 6:48–50 ESV

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

We chase after our desires thinking that they fulfill us, that they make us more – but if you spend your life chasing them they will reduce you down to nothing when you die.

The only way to be something more than the dust we came from is through Jesus. He doesn’t make us less, he makes us everything.

Everything you should be right here right now
Everything God created you to be
Something that doesn’t fade away in the grave

John 6:63 ESV

⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Conclusion

John 6:66–67 ESV

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

That’s the question he asks for all of us.