I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE am sermon 3/6/11

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
Bread can be a controversial thing and I found that out in college.
I had a roommate that was a very interesting person. When you play football in college the coaches pick out your roommate and it is usually a person that plays the same position as you do. My roommate was a fellow Linebacker and when I first met him I realized he was a few French fries short of a happy meal.
We lived on the 7th floor of a dorm at UAB and he decided he would start entertaining himself by throwing bread on people’s balcony. Well in a city like Birmingham pigeons are a plenty and they like bread.
When my roommate would do this flocks and flocks of pigeons would swarm those balconies that were lucky enough to get his assault of bread.
Well to simplify this story my roommate had to appear before the school disciplinary council and he was quickly informed that bread had a purpose and that purpose was for things like sandwiches and not balconies.
In today’s story we will come in contact with another controversial bread story.
Let’s get our story today up to speed.
A few weeks ago we saw Jesus multiply five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5000 men and their families
A young boy brought all he had and gave it to Jesus and Jesus used it to work this great miracle.
Jesus becomes very popular quick because he fills their stomach for free. People want a free meal.
Jesus withdraws to the Mountain because they want to force Him to become a king. You might be confused by this because we realize that Jesus is the king of the Jews so why does He almost run when they try to force Him to become King.
Well something might be learned by the type of King they want – they want a king like the king of their times.
One of the main roles of the Caesar was to provide bread to the masses. When Rome had their worst uprisings was when Caesar could not provide bread.
Jesus doesn’t want a kingdom set up on people just wanting a king to provide welfare but wants a kingdom of people with their hearts transformed to see a deeper truth.
Right after this episode the Disciples cross the sea of Galilee and Jesus walks on the water to meet them.
This is another way for John to put a big flashing light up saying Jesus is God. We miss it many times but the Jewish people knew only God could walk on water.
Job 9: 8 tells us that only Jehovah can tread on the waves of the deep.
When Jesus walks out on the water to them they understand that this is only an act of God.
In John 6:19 we see that the apostles are terrified and Jesus lets them know – It is I
Literally in the Greek Ega Eimi –
This is the same name that God gives Moses at the Burning bush – Jesus is telling the Apostles that He is God – the Great I AM
This episode is called an Epiphany or a revealing of who God really is.
It is from this episode that we pick up on our story for this morning.
John ‘s Gospel will focus on the feast of the Jews from chapters 5 -10 That will be the backdrop of these teachings.
Chapter 6 has the background of the Passover and the teaching today we will learn in John 6:59 that Jesus is in a Synagogue on Passover
In this Passover synagogue service there would be certain things read as lectionary readings for the feast days.
During this day Exodus 16-17 we be read and the teaching of God’s giving of the Manna would have been read.
As a matter of fact the fascinating thing about this story is that Exodus 16-17 is a backdrop for this story.
In John 6: 31-32 Jesus discusses the Manna that came from Heaven the
This bread that Gods sent in the morning would only be enough for that particular day. It was literally DAILY BREAD – the expression give us our daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer comes from this reality.
Jesus corrects them and reminds them that God sent the bread from Heaven and now Jesus is the true bread that comes from Heaven. Jesus is from Heaven.
Let us pick up in the story this morning in John 6
John 6: 31-40
35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life ; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not 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 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." 41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." 42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven '?" 43 Jesus answered and said to 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 SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God ; He has seen the Father. 47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who 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 which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven ; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever ; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." 52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, 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 yourselves. 54 "He who eats 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 "He who eats 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 he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven ; not as the fathers ate and died ; he who eats this bread will live forever."
This is the First I AM Saying of John’s Gospel
I am the BREAD OF LIFE – there are seven I AM sayings in John’s Gospel – seven keeps in line with John’s vision that Jesus is bringing about New Creation – seven days of Creation – Seven I AM’s
This particular phrase I am the bread of Life is repeated four times in John’s Gospel
This teaching seems odd and vague. I would propose that this is some of the toughest teaching the New Testament.
Jesus says strange things that seem like he is proposing Cannabilism. One of the main accusations the Romans made against the Church was cannibalism – because of the Lord’s Supper.
But what is Jesus trying to do here?
I. 1st of all – trying to rid them from their temporal view of the world – they don’t see it as God’s world and God as their provider of all needs.
As World War II was drawing to a close, the Allied armies gathered up many hungry orphans. They were placed in camps where they were well-fed. Despite excellent care, they slept poorly. They seemed nervous and afraid. Finally, a psychologist came up with the solution. Each child was given a piece of bread to hold after he was put to bed. This particular piece of bread was just to be held—not eaten. The piece of bread produced wonderful results. The children went to bed knowing instinctively they would have food to eat the next day. That guarantee gave the children a restful and contented sleep.
It seems that regardless of the socio-economic group to which we belong, or how sophisticated our palette becomes, every one of us recognizes the significance of bread as a staple of our basic human existence.
St. Augustine rightly observed that every single person has a God-shaped vacuum in his soul. We can attempt to fill that cavity with a host of other things, but finally nothing satiates thirst for our redemption and our hunger for significance except Jesus and His gospel.
You are all familiar with the old saying:
Money can buy you a house, but not a home;
money can buy you an education, but not wisdom;
money can buy you a bed, but not restful sleep;
money can buy you influence, but not respect;
it can buy you medicine, but not health;
a spouse, but not love; quiet, but not tranquility.
Despite the failure of money, power, pleasure, drink, drugs, or the host of other glittering distractions that promise peace and fulfillment but cannot deliver, we still scramble and claw
Biblical commentator Ravi Zacharis writes:
Jesus’ words were intended to lift the listeners from their barren, food-dominated existence to the recognition and acknowledgment of the supreme hunger of life that can only be filled with a different bread. Food and power blind the mind to the need for nourishment and strength of soul. Unfortunately, many fail to pause here long enough to really hear what Jesus is teaching and understand the life-transforming power contained in this truth.”
Our soul longs for something more.
This point speaks to me personally. I am the most anxious person in the world. When Paul said that Christ came to die for all sinners and He is the chiefest of all, I can identify with that statement.
This morning Jesus comes to rid of us of spiritual anxiety and fleshly anxiety and the chief of all anxious people.
We live in a world driven to success, driven to provide, driven by the latest terrible news from Libya, Egypt, wherever, the unemployment numbers all of the bad stuff.
How do we respond to this situation?
1) Some people respond by worry, anxiety, fretting about what they can’t solve.
2) Some people respond by drugs and alcohol to cope with this world.
3) Some people respond by recreation. They cope with the world by going golfing every moment, some allow working out to get in the way, some allow going to the lake, fishing, hunting, sports, to help them cope with this world.
None of those are evil to themselves but they become evil when we neglect God’s Kingdom to do them.
Here is the remedy – Here is how we get the point Jesus is trying to emphasize in this passage.
It is this simple - A Kingdom Mindset – We see ourselves part of something greater than anything in this world.
We are like aliens from another country living in this world. No wonder this world alarms us and makes us feel like things are upside down.
They are upside down – this world is wrong way up – we are not supposed to fit.
Here is a good test case – look at the people around you that are not commited to their faith – they don’t go to church – I hestitate to say they are not Christians because in our country being a Christian is a more of a cultural saying than what the Bible means but nonetheless – are you different than those people, do you stand out? Are you odd or out of place?
Are we like the Jews in this story of Jesus just caught up in what man sees? The temporal, the food, the cars, the house, the stuff of this world?
Are we caught up in what God cares about? The things that last – the building of his Kingdom.
In Matthew 6:25 Jesus says:
25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink ; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing ?
Then he goes on to say:
33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 "So do not worry about tomorrow ; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
What if we could get to this point as Christians where we were different?
If I were to ask a show of hands about how many of us are worried about money? Our appearance? Our health?
What if we were, with the help of God able to change our minds to where we could let God have those things and allow His Kingdom to become first?
This is exactly what Jesus is proposing – If we seek God’s Kingdom first it will all fall in place.
So consider that statement – Seek His kingdom first.
Do our lives align with that.
What about our time – does our time commitment show that God’s Kingdom is first in our lives?
Money – how we spend our money- I would say in America this is NUMBER 1- MONEY is king – our next president will be elected not on his values but on the ECONOMY – you mark it down now. If the economy is thriving people will elect a president that will lie cheat and steal as long as there are jobs and people are making a lot of money.
How we spend our money tells us about our priorities – Do you spend more money on recreation and the luxuries of this life or do we put our money into God’s Kingdom and God’s work.
American Christians are in a unique situation in that we have the money to help others in need. The American Church should never have to worry about the money to do God’s work.
A preacher once told me that if we ever start a project in our Church that we know is going to expand God’s Kingdom and we start off worrying about the cost it is doomed to failure.
Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. We have a group of parents that got together and have raised money and commitments to put turf on our practice field. This is noble and great for our kids but how many of these people that do these things would be willing to give that much to their church for projects and missions.
That hits us where it hurts but it is true.

II. Jesus gives his life, his very flesh all of Himself to us
Jesus speaks in this passage of eating His flesh and likens his body to bread
Where have you heard something like this in the Bible? Is there anyplace else in the Bible where Jesus connects bread to his body?
Last Supper
Take Eat This is My Body
The Bread of the Supper is in some way to us the body of Christ - Why did Jesus give us the Lord’s Supper?
If God is pure spirit why do we baptize people in water?
Why do we do these physical acts of worship if God is a pure spirit?
Consider this – we are strange beings – we are Physical and spiritual – we are both. Somehow, mystically there is an intertwining of our spiritual and physical being.
We can see our spirit or soul but we know it is there.
We are more than just physical – Science has proven that there is a part of us that is above and beyond our physical selves – We have a supra personality that is not part of our physical bodies
Brain research has shown that when a person that is alert has their brain stimulated during brain surgery they will see various body parts move and twitch. An electric shock makes the brain send a signal from the brain to the muscles.
What is fascinating is that the person that is awake while this stimulation takes place knows that they are not making the action happen. They know that an outside force is causing their biomechanics of their brain to make their appendage move.
There is something about that person that is not part of their physical anatomy or even their brain mechanics that tells them that they are above and beyond the physicality of the body- this is profound and proves scientifically that man has a soul or spirit.
We can see it we can’t quantify it but it is there.
Now the same is true of God’s grace and God’s work in our lives – it cannot be seen with physical eyes. It is a mystery – Jesus in John 3 likened the work of God’s Spirit with the blowing of the wind – the wind is invisible and it is a mystery as to where it comes from and where it is going.
God understands that we are physical and spiritual so he communicates to us in ways that we understand. Things that make sense – God became a man to show us how to live is the ultimate example of this.
Now consider the very ordinances of the Church – Baptism – God connected one’s entrance INTO Christ with the act of water baptism – Water = life in the ancient world
God said if you are sick in James to call upon the elders of the Church and have them anoint you with oil. Olive oil was a staple of the their diet and well being. It was a part of life Basic.
Bread and Wine – The Lord’s Supper – two of the most common food items for all ancient people, rich or poor.
Now think about how this works – God took Oil, Water, Wine, and Bread the very staples of life and connected them in with His invisible work in the spiritual realm.
The message is simple – God is the author of life – every time we see these elements we are reminded.
But what is more is that God elevates this basic items of oil, wine, Bread, water and gives them greater spiritual reality – Just like Jesus did – the Isrealites were so caught up in the temporal idea of the manna that they falsely attributed to Moses –
Jesus is taking us to new heights out of the shackles of just fleshly desire and sanctifies this elements and uses them to point to a greater life that God is calling us to.
It is not just about physical sustenance and nourishment but it is about Spiritual feeding on Christ.
This is profound and deep but we need to understand that the Lord’s Supper is much different than we could imagine.
Let me ask this question,
When did we ever get the idea that the Lord’s Supper is simply just a memorial feast?
Some of us get that idea because Jesus said do this in Remembrance of Me but when we hear those words as just remembering a sad past event we get it all wrong.
The word Remembrance in our translations cannot do justice to the original word ANAMNESIS – The original word was used by the Hebrews for Passover - they saw each Passover as a Participation in the Exodus event – they were somehow mystically connected to that event.
The Supper of the Lord is the same – it is so significant that the early Church made it the focal point of their assembly.
From the NT to the Early Church to the Reformation with Calvin and Luther all the way to the American Restoration Movement with Alexander Campbell and James Harding and David Lipscomb – they all saw the Lord’s Supper as more than just a symbol or just a memorial.
CS Lewis spoke of the Lord’s Supper as a time that a hand from a far off country reached out and touched us.
It is a place where Heaven and Earth have interlocked not to be torn apart. The Irish Christians back a long time ago talked about thin places – thin places to them was where it seemed that Heaven was invading earth.
I would propose the worship services, baptisms, and the Lord’s Supper are places where Heaven’s grace and power long to invade our world. If we cant believe that Heaven can invade earth then why are we Christians?
The very act of God becoming a man is evidence that it can happen.
Today we will commune at the Lord’s Table – we will remember but more than just remember we will commune.
Paul says that we should examine ourselves before we consider partaking of the Supper. Don’t you think that is serious business?
Don’t you think that if Paul says you will sin against the body of Christ if you take it an unworthy manner we should really consider this act of worship to be something that is the highlight of Sunday but also something we look forward to all week.
We are literally eating in the presence of God –we are invited to His Table – Just as Moses and Aaron and the 70 elders of Israel went up on Mount Sinai to eat in God’s presence we are invited to Mount Zion –
We are invited where there are myriads of angels attending to God – there are the ones that have died and gone on to their reward – we are invited to get a fore taste of the banquet feast of the Lord. This is so rich in meaning that we need to leave the milk of the word on things like baptism and the Lords Supper and get to the meat.
We need to get to where we understand that this Table fellowship with one another and with God is made possible through the sacrifice of the Cross.
Today let us celebrate, reflect and glory in the cross as we partake – let us consider the salvation extended to all of us.