Jesus the bread of life

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Jesus the bread of life 

Scripture reading John 6:35-37

• Why are you following Jesus?
• Do you really know who Jesus is?
• Do you understand why you are here?

READ John 6:22-24 from bible

These people were following Jesus even before He fed them because they had seen Him heal a bunch of sick people. Then we read the whole miracle of Jesus walking on the water and now He’s arrived on the other side of the lake but many have followed Him there looking for another free lunch.

And now they’ve found him they ask a question. But Jesus does NOT answer their question – but make a statement

READ John 6:25-27 You’d think Jesus would be REALLY please about that? Wouldn’t he applaud that? CLAP CLAP But he doesn’t commend them. He cuts right to the heart of the matter

They were following for the wrong reasons

If we are following Jesus for the wrong reason, what He demands of us will be impossible,

“it will be hard to swallow and it will be hard to follow”.

If we are following Jesus for the correct reason, even though what He teaches us to do is difficult, we will be committed to doing it and teaching it. BECAUSE WE WILL LIVE IN HIM. HE WILL DO IT IN US

Our motivation for following Jesus will determine how deep we are willing to go with Him.

Our relationship will be better, stronger. deeper

 

READ John 6:29-34. Jesus says, but hey – I AM the bread of life and that whoever comes to Him will never be hungry or thirsty again! He tells them – hey! You’ve seen me, and still do not believe.

And he says that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life!

READ John 6:35-40 from the bible. These sayings are amazing claims

 

READ John 6:41-43 This is the sort of thing you expect to hear in a mental hospital: from people who have lost touch with reality. He’s come down from heaven.

Yet his claims aren’t those of a megalomaniac. (power hungry; power crazy) It’s a humble claim. “for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” I AM THE MANNA!

I am Spectacular

 

But all these people could see was the Jesus they’d always known. They’d seen him grow up. They’d bought furniture from his father. He seemed so ordinary that they couldn’t grasp the idea that there was more to him than what they saw.

 

Jesus tells the crowd to stop complaining, not a good way to start a sermon.

He does not back down, He does not make it simple. It gets harder He compares Himself to the manna from heaven, He said those who ate the manna, eventually died. Then He said whoever eats the bread that comes from heaven now, will not die. Why did these guys battle so much? What was going on?

 

You see there were many rabbis around at the time of Jesus. John the Baptist was one. John and James were two of his disciples. They left John and turned to Jesus. So here is Jesus – another rabbi. And they know him. Many watched him grow up. They saw him as a man – a Prophet but not the bread

READ John 6:44-51

 

And this started another argument amongst the followers. More complaints. You can sense the resistance. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? But it gets worse, because now he tells them an even harder truth. He has fed the multitudes with bread, (manna) and now offers the bread of life. The bread from heaven was bread from God. Jesus now offers himself as this bread, by OFFERING THEM HIS FLESH and his BLOOD. It just got harder and harder!

READ John 6:53-58

So why? Why is it so hard?

They came to that place we call in impasse

A decision time where there is an absolute moment where you MUST choose.  You cannot go on. You cannot grow. You cannot make progress. STUCK

You make a choice

READ John 6:60-68

Why? Why do some people believe and some people do not?

Because it’s ALL not about knowledge

The crazy thing is that These folks had actually seen, with their very own eyes, the miracle of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 with two small barley loaves and two fish.

These folks had also been filled with the bread and fish that had been provided by this miracle and “if He did it once, He can do it again!”

They had seen the supernatural work of the Lord and they had eaten the natural, earthly result of that supernatural miracle.

They had experienced the divine and the natural. IT DIDN’T LAND

Which were they seeking more of; divine or natural?

These folks had been hungry and had been fed and it felt great to be well fed!

Now it was morning time and they were hungry again.

OK, Rabbi, feed us again.

Now we need to put ourselves into the shoes of these folks. They have called Jesus “Rabbi” so they expect Him to teach as other Rabbi’s they have heard.

In their experience, the Jewish religion has been reduced to a set of laws. So, they wanted more rules. Something to do

The Ten Commandments and the 613 laws or traditions of the Pharisees.

You were a good Jew by doing.

So, they wanted to do

Not believe

You see to do means they could do it in their own strength v63

Not rely on the divine.

Some people come really close. Remember the parable of the sower?

 

READ John 12:42-43

These people were materialists. They’d eaten the loaves and had their fill, but they’d completely missed the spiritual significance of what had happened. They’d seen the miracle but they hadn’t seen the sign.

Jesus had looked at the crowd and seen not just hungry people, but also people searching in vain for something to fill a spiritual vacuum within them.

The message was a spiritual message. And they couldn’t see past the material.

 

Do you believe ……..?

• God has loved us enough to send Jesus
• …… that coming to Christ was all his idea
• That He has enabled us to accept but will not force us to do so

 

You choose to believe and follow….

• Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life.
• It means that Jesus making a direct claim here to be God incarnate.
• He says that He alone is the source of everlasting life
• He alone can satisfy.
• You need to either accept or reject that claim.

 

 

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