The Living Bread of Life - Part 1

John 6:30-55 “Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give 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.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 

The other week, Pastor Herk of Little Church in the Pine at Bass Lake, California, where my dear old dad attends Sunday Worship Services, completed his last sermon before closing the campus until the Coronavirus epidemic is over. In his final message before the break, he asked the congregation, “How many like bread? Every culture on earth loves bread and it is considered a staple (a basic, main or important element of a diet. Americans alone consume approximately 34 million loaves of bread daily.

But, what did Jesus mean when He said, “I am the Bread of Life”? And, what difference does it make to us? Jesus was not saying that He was the “giver” of bread. We see from the context that Jesus had just miraculously fed the 5000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish and still had twelve baskets of bread leftover. Then, Jesus walked on the water to cross the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, with His disciples crossing in a boat. The next day, the people cross the lake to find Jesus. They tracked Him down because He gave them what they wanted. They wanted the bread, but they did not necessarily want Jesus. They wanted the blessing, but not the Blessor. They did not hunger for Jesus, but for the gifts that they were about to receive.

But, Jesus was saying that you cannot get the blessing without Him. “I am the bread” means “I am the blessing”. Essentially, without Jesus, none of us are going to get the blessing that God want to give us. We receive our blessings because of Jesus. Born again Believers have the blessings of being children of God, citizen of the kingdom of Heaven and the receiving of the indwelling Holy Spirit; all spiritual blessings.

We need to be thankful for our physical blessings in life, but dependence upon our physical blessings is why we need Jesus, because physical blessings can become a trap. Many Christians stumble and lose their faith because of lost physical blessings. Because their faith was based on physical things, they lose both. They focus on the physical blessings that they want from Jesus that they forget about the fact that there are spiritual blessings that are even more important.

So, we have to try and protect ourselves from this trap; to realize that we do not deserve these physical blessings to begin with. They are all gifts from God that can be lost in a heartbeat. We should always be thankful that God is granting us kindness.

Let’s continue Pastor Herk’s message on “the Living Bread of Life” in the next post.