I Am the Bread of Life (John 6:22–59) | Melissa Kruger | Word First

father we come here um we all come from so many different places um Lord each woman here came and I'm sure it took a lot to get here and so Lord at this time as we come before you I pray just what Blair said take our eyes off I and let us Behold The Great I Am let us see you Jesus and let us behold and believe it's in your name we pray amen this past March I had one of those big birthdays one of those Milestone birthdays I turned 50 and thank you the other 50y olds here um and I had been warned um by some of my friends who are a little bit older yeah when you turn 50 your body really does start kind of to fall apart um um you know just aches and pains trouble sleeping trouble concentrating all the things and so since March I can tell you that I have been to the eye doctor because the fuzzy eye syndrome I mean like all the sudden these words got smaller a lot smaller um and all of a sudden I've been to the ear doctor cuz I can't hear correctly my kids started whispering or something around me and so I went to the year doctor and then I was having all of this like radiating hip pain so I'm at the chiropractor and I I'm happy to make new friends at any age but I would rather not have to pay them and they keep saying really mean things to me like well at your age and so finally I was discussing this with some friends over lunch and one of those friends who had turned 50 a few years ago she said you know um one thing that really helped me I actually went to this nutritionist and when I went to her she helped me understand that what I was putting in my body was really affecting things like inflammation and my sleep and she said you should go to her you should try so um I call up Sue the nutritionist and I go into her office and she does some tests and she asks me some of my eating habits and we have this little conversation and all of a sudden she starts telling me the plan and the first thing she says to me is well you know you really need some more carbs and in my head I'm I'm thinking oh okay she must mean like carbs from fruits and vegetables so I asked a clarifying question because I was like maybe I heard her wrong since my hearing's also going and so when I asked her that she goes no you need more bread in your life you actually need to eat toast with breakfast and you need to have a sandwich at lunch now I'll be honest I almost had an awkward moment where I like went up and was like I'm going to hug you and we're going to be best friends forever and so I go up and and she's telling me this and then as I'm sitting in her office I start laughing to myself I'm sitting here in a nutritionist office and I have been for the past four months studying this passage of Jesus as the bre of life and I have a nutritionist telling me you need more bread and I have to say this is what the Lord so often does in my life he takes physical things to help teach spiritual truths and that's what John is doing all through his gospel as Jesus explains himself to the Israelites as he comes into this world and he explains himself here's what we know he's the incomprehensible God but he chooses to make himself known by what we know and so he comes and he starts to explain who he is by using the stuff of Earth I'm the bread of the I'm the bread of life I'm the vine I'm the Good Shepherd he takes what we know to make himself know able to us so that's what's happening through the Book of John he's weaving this through and as he's explaining who he is he's performing miraculous signs and wonders to show that he is exactly who he says he is and that's what's happening through the Gospel of John he's taking us on this journey to help explain who he is and he's showing us by the signs so tonight we're going to be looking at John 6 and so when we look at this passage I want us to look at it through three ways we have a persistent problem there's a surprising solution offered and we have a difficult decision to make so I'll say that again there's a persistent problem a surprising solution and a difficult decision to make so if you will open your Bibles turn with me to John 6:24 John 6:24 and to set the context of this passage the day before this is when Jesus has just fed the 5000 so he's just taken these two loaves of bread and he's fed the masses it was actually was it two fish and five loaves of bread y'all correct me y'all can tell me what I did wrong um so he takes that he's just done this big miracle of giving them the bread read and so now this text picks up right after that so read with me so when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples they themselves got into the boats and went to capernium seeking Jesus when they found him on the other side of the sea they said to him Rabbi when did you come here Jesus answered them truly truly I say to you you are seeking me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves do not work for the food that perishes but the food that ET endures to eternal life which the son of man will give to you for on him God the father has set his seal then they said to him what must we do to be doing the work of of God Jesus answered them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent so they said to him then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you what work do you perform our fathers ate Mana in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from Heaven to eat Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world they said to him sir give us this bread always 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 okay so this passage highlights a persistent problem and there are two problems that they're facing it's what they're seeking for satis for satisfaction and how they're seeking to get it so it's what they're seeking and how they're seeking So In this passage it tells us that that they started by seeking Jesus but he calls them out on that look back at the text he says Jesus answered them truly truly I say to you you are seeking me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves it's hard for us to imagine but in the ancient world you would spend your whole day trying to get food and then you would wake up the next day and you would be trying to get food again hunger was a constant problem and I am sure an Israelite would have thought to himself or her yourself if I could just find a guy who can give me bread every day I would be completely satisfied in life I would have everything I need now the reality we all know we live in a world where many people do know what it's like to have all they need to eat each day in fact we have a whole diet industry so we will limit what we eat and we know that just having that basic need met does not lead to Ultimate satisfaction right I could go around this room and even though most of us have had our fill of food today I bet every woman in this in here has a longing a hunger that she's hoping for it might be situational maybe you want a new job a new location a new circumstance of some sort maybe it's material you think you need more money home a new car maybe it's relational friendship spouse a child healthier relationships maybe it's physical maybe it's your appearance your health your freedom from aches and pains most of us in this life look to the physical world and we say if I just had that then I would be satisfied what this passage is going to highlight for us is is that underneath all of our physical longings there's actually a much bigger spiritual longing and as much as we may try to fill our lives and go down every Avenue of trying to find satisfaction we will come up short time and time and time again in fact you often see people who get everything out of life and and they come up and they say it's just not enough if you go back in songs Through Time and often these are people who have made it in the industry I want you to think with me about some of the songs out there and what they've said if we go back all the way to 1965 the Rolling Stones and y'all I wish I could sing but I cannot sing and I will not hurt your ears tonight because unless you're hearing is really bad it it would be it would be rough so I'm not going to sing these but the Rolling Stones wrote a song and they're famous at this point right they've made it they have everything everything they might want in career-wise and what's the song they wrote I Can't Get No Satisfaction though I try and I try and I try we have Peggy Lee in 1969 she had a song is that all there is and here are some of the lyrics all searching for the promised land tired Souls with empty hands asking to themselves is this all there is in the 1980s there was you too I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for Cheryl Crow in the 1990s If It Makes You Happy why are you so sad Melissa's version cleaned up for TGC then I don't know if you're familiar with a new artist called Olivia Rodrigo before the age of 20 let me tell you a little bit about her before the age of 20 she'd won three Grammy Awards seven Billboard Music Awards four MTV Video Music Awards four ihart Radio Music Awards two People's Choice Awards an American Music Award a Brit award and a Juno award and she was named times Entertainer of the Year for 2021 it's pretty good for a 20-year-old by when she actually turned 20 she released a new song it was called making the bed here are some of the lyrics I'm so tired of being the girl that I am every good thing has turned into something I dread and I'm playing the victim so well in my head but it's me who's been making the bad here's a line that she says I got the things I wanted it's just not what I imagined my 50-year-old self would like to look back at her 20-year-old self in a little bit of disdain right I'd like what does she know but you know what I find myself resonating with her I've gotten so many of the things I wanted and it's just not what I imagined it's not we most most of us as we Chase all these things for satisfaction they come up empty we're like a woman who stands before the ocean and she's desperately thirsty she has a cup in her hand and she thinks to herself if I could just scoop down and get some of that water and take a drink maybe then I would be satisfied and if we were watching her what would we all do we would yell at her and we would say don't drink what do we know about ocean water if you drink it you're only going to be thirstier still and if you keep drinking it eventually you will die it's not that the ocean is a bad thing the ocean is a really good thing we love to look at it we'd love to swim in it it's beautiful to behold but it was never meant to satisfy our thirst and when we go to the physical world trying to find spiritual satisfaction it will never work because it was never intended to satisfy us so the Israelites are coming to Jesus and they're missing the savior because they're so focused on the sign they want more bread it's like taking a family trip to Disney World and you keep passing the signs as you get closer and closer to Disney World and all of a sudden you unpack the station wagon I guess they're a minivan I'm really too old um you unpack the minivan and you set out a blanket in front of a big sign that says Disney World and Mickey's there and you say hey kids look there's Mickey and Minnie that may be the closest they've ever been to Disney World but it's not the real thing the sign point to Jesus but what they need is the savior so this is the problem the first problem of our hunger so often we go looking for satisfaction in the wrong places the second thing we do is try to fill it in the wrong way let's look back down at the text it says this do not work for the food that perishes but for for the food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give to you for on him God the father has set his seal then they said to him what must we do to be doing the works of God Jesus answered this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent Jesus starts out saying hey this food's going to be given to you and then they immediately say what must we do and this there's a whole world built there's a whole self-help industry built on this whole nation what must we do what can I do and this is really part of the curse if you go back in scripture to the very first mention of bread it's found in Genesis 3 and it's when the effects of the curse are being unveiled and here what it says by the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread here's what the curse tells you you are going to have to work hard to achieve what you need and that's what they're living in so when Jesus comes to them and says this bread is going to be given to you he's saying something very different it's it's like when you're in Narnia and the ice is starting to melt and you know that alen's on the Move there's this question of how can he say that how can the bread be given to you whose sweat is going to earn it here's the interesting thing the only time there's only one instance where we hear of a man sweating in scripture can you think of where it is one instance gospel writer tells us it's Luke 22:44 and listen to what he says and being an Agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground do you see what's happening here the bread that's going to be given is not free it's is extremely [Music] costly our the sweat of our brow could never earn it for us but Jesus came and he lived a perfect life and he died at death in our place so that he might offer us eternal life and all we have to do to receive that eternal life is believe the work has been done for us and we get to Feast the curse tells you you are going to have to work hard to achieve what you need let me say what the gospel tells you you must believe to receive what you could never achieve You Must Believe to receive what you could never achieve it's such good news my friends it's such good news the gospel rolls back the curse and offers us true bread and it offers us the Escape From The Curse which is a life of what must I do and the gospel says We believe We believe so the problem of our persistent hunger is twofold we seek satisfaction in the wrong things and we seek to achieve it by our own means we're going for the for the wrong thing in the wrong way and after this the Israelites have this little conversation with them they're like okay we hear what you're saying you say we just have to believe we're going to receive this bread for free why should we believe you listen back at the text what sign do you do that we may see and believe you what work do you perform our fathers ate the man in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat Jesus said truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world so here they're having this little theological conversations which basically can be summarized by this hey you gave us a meal once Moses did it for 40 years we're not that impressed by you and what Jesus he he quietly corrects them he was like it was actually God who gave you that bread and now there's an even better bread before you and they lean in and look at what they say Sir give us this bread always and now at this moment Jesus offers a surprising solution what's his surprising solution he says I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and who ever believes in me shall never thirst he is telling them he is the provision they need for the satisfaction they hope to experience and by saying this by coming to them and saying that he is the bread of life I want you to know he's telling them he's the main meal it's not like in our world today where you know you might have a role as a little side dish meal a meal in the ancient world often just consisted of bread that was a full meal that's what they would eat he is saying to them I am everything you need to find satisfaction in this life he's saying that he is the main meal and in a lot of ways he's hearkening back to a text in the book of Isaiah in Isaiah 55 we have this amazing passage Isaiah kind of positions himself as a seller in the market and he says to them come all you who are thirsty come to the waters you who have no money come buy and eat come byy wine and milk without Co money and without cost why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy listen listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will Delight in the richest of fair and now Jesus stands on the scene and he says the exact same words come to me and he's promising that their soul will Delight in the richest Affair he is the Fulfillment of what Isaiah was talking about he is the sole satisfaction that we need he will sustain us because he's the main meal and he's not just the main meal he's a sad satisfying meal I don't know if you've ever had this situation um in a restaurant I'm terrible about this I'm actually terrible to eat a meal with because I suffer from what I call Food Envy um I didn't even tell Courtney this it happened the other night so what what happens is we put our order in and I want to know what everybody else is ordering because I'm terrified when theirs comes I'm going to want what they got and just just two nights ago here Indie I'm eating with Courtney and she had ordered this other chicken sandwich and it came and sure enough I was like hers looks way better way better um and so I think sometimes when Jesus comes to us he says I'm the bread of life we think was it really that great well here's the thing it's it's kind of good Jesus didn't come to them and say hey I'm the peas and carrots he didn't say I'm the broccoli of Life aren't we glad he didn't say that he appealed to something he pointed to something that appeals to us all every culture celebrates bread every culture think about it pea Nan Bagels biscuits faka and Jer bread tortilla croissants and even if you are allergic to gluten we have gluten-free bread everybody wants bread and guess what rich and poor want bread everybody wants it because it's not just a meal that sustains it's a meal that satisfies Jesus is saying I'm the good stuff I'm the thing that's going to give life to your living it's not just eternal life it's life here I'm going to satisfy you in such a way that you're going to have Abundant Life you just have to come and you have to eat one thing I learned from my nutritionist is that I had fallen into a lot of really bad habits I would get so busy with work during the day that I would forget to eat and so I would go through my day I'm in my day and all a sudden I get a headache and I would be like oh I guess I need I need to eat I need to eat and so I'd eat to try to get rid of the headache but then I'd find myself at the end of day completely exhausted and the reality is she has come to me and she's like actually you need to eat bread in the morning you need to eat bread at your meal you I feel like a toddler I'm having to eat so much she keeps me on this plan but she's like you have to keep fueling your body and when Jesus comes to us and explains to us that he's the bread of life he's saying you need me for Spiritual fuel in your life and there are two things you probably need to do if you want to eat rightly you need to plan when to eat and you need to plan what to eat eat and so here's what I want to say to all of us we have to plan time with Jesus in our life I think often we think we have a busyness problem and the reality is we do not have a busyness problem we have a belief problem you will fill your life with what you think is most important and I know I watch you on Instagram you all do hard things I see like artisan bread loaves being made I see women running businesses I see y'all running marathons and some people are raising chickens y'all are doing hard things you can find time to spend with Jesus you can find time to spend with Jesus and you desperately desperately need to do it plan Daily Time With Jesus plan rhythms go to church every week be in a Bible study get time with Jesus in your life and then plan what to eat now this is a really thing we have to talk about um and and and the Jews disputed among themselves and they asked this question they said how can this man give us his flesh to eat What on earth does that mean and Jesus answers whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him let me say what we're not talking about we are not talking about literally or physically ingesting Jesus but we feed on him spiritually by faith we take him in and this is something in Intimate in the ancient world eating with someone was intimate and now he's saying no ingest me take me in because what Jesus knows is what we all know did everyone's mother say to them you are what you eat you know we've all heard that and by taking him in we become like him we will be so tempted in our lives to try to be harder be better work harder do more what must we do to earn God's favor and he says come to me eat of me and he changes us from the inside out as we spend time with him we are changed isn't it interesting that the I am statements begin with bread and end with the vine which is what produces wine our whole Christian faith is centered around a meal we eat together so we remember the body and the blood that were shed for us we take him in so that we might remember that we need him daily so that we might experience Abundant Life so Jesus is the surprising solution to our spiritual hunger and that leaves all of us with a difficult decision what do you believe about Jesus this is the question of all questions this is the question of your life and it's clear that his listeners were taken AB back by what he was saying when we look back in the Old Testament you know when the Israelites were given Mana I mean the Israelites in the Old Testament they were constantly grumbling about whatever God gave them right we know this they grumbled they grumbled God provides they grumbled they Grumble God provides and you know he finally gives them this mana and you know their reaction is actually what the word Mana means do you remember what it means in the old test Testament when they see the Mana the word Mana actually means what is this and I have a feeling it was said a little bit complaining it wasn't like oh what's this I think it was what is this what is this what are you providing and let's look at the text when we look back down in John 6:41 look what happens again so the Jews grumbled about him because he said I am the the bread that came down from heaven they said is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know the Old Testament they looked at the Mana and they said what is this now they look at Jesus and they say who is this who are you and let's be honest if any guy came to you and said hey I'm the bread of life I'm the light of the world I'm the Good Shepherd I'm the way the truth and the life I would tell you to run as fast as possible away from him wouldn't you tell your friend that it sounds like a classic narcissist I'm everything I Jesus is coming on the scene and what he does not leave any room for is hey he's a kind of good guy he is either God he is either who he says he is or he is someone you should run fast and far away from but if his word is true and if these words are true and if he is the bread of life if he is the light of the world if he is the way and the truth and the life what will you do with Jesus it is the only question of your life it is the only question of Eternity and it is the thing do not leave this weekend without answering it is the question who is Jesus and friends let me tell you he is the bread of life he will sustain you he will satisfy you you can chase every other pathway down and you will never find life without him he is the bread of life open your heart to him take him come to him eat from him believe in him and if you already know Jesus if you have walked with him will you invite others to join the feast I have a friend her son has been in Ranger school this past spring and what it's such a difficult thing and you we've watched your son go through this and we've prayed for him all the way through it and one of the hardest things about Ranger school is that normally on a daily basis you burn earn about 5,000 calories and they're given 2,000 calories so most of these soldiers are literally starving as they go through Ranger school in fact one of the common things that happens to them is they start hallucinating she told me that her son saw one friend and this Soldier went up to a tree and he started to put money in the tree because he was hallucinating that it was a vending machine and he was so Des ERT for food that he was putting money in the tree and friends when we look around the world when we look at people there are a lot of people who are not seeing the world correctly there are a lot of people who are going through their life and they are doing harm to themselves and they are doing harm to others and they are not walking in the ways that God intended but what I want you to see is we should be the most compassionate for them because what they are is desperately hungry they don't see the world correctly and while you can say all day long hey that's a tree not a vending machine what they really need is the bread of life they need Jesus will you go out into the world will you go out into your neighborhood will you go out into your community and will you love others enough to invite them to To The Feast will you be bold will you share with others because they are desperately St starving it is the most compassionate thing you can do to share the truth of Jesus with others in your life it's the most compassionate thing that you can do and then just as a final encouragement to you as you think about Jesus as the bread of life let me encourage you keep coming keep coming to Jesus don't think that because you ate a meal two years ago you're going to still be filled up today we need Jesus every day it's Daily Bread it's Daily Bread he is the one person who can sustain you and he can satisfy you he is the surprising solution to the persistent problem that we are all facing so sisters I invite you come to the feast come to Jesus taste and see that he is good he is so good if this content has helped you consider donating today to help ensure that others have trusted timely gospel centered resources whether it's a one-time donation or becoming a monthly 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