Jesus is…the Son of God. Jesus is…the Lamb of God. Jesus is…the Teacher. Jesus is…the Messiah. Jesus is…the Temple. Jesus is…the giver of eternal life. Jesus is…the giver of Living Water. Jesus is…the Lord of Creation.
This morning as we look at another passage in John, we’re going to get one of Jesus’s “I Am” statements. We’ve been looking at who Jesus revealed Himself to be through conversations He had with those He ministered to, but seven times in the book of John, Jesus gives a very clear “I Am” statement when He declares who He is in a way that was unexpected by those who heard Him speak.
It was unexpected because it reminded them of the name that God revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus, when Moses asked the Lord who he should say was sending him to the Israelites, and the Lord responded, “I Am is sending you.” By reminding them of this connection, He was revealing to them not only who He, Jesus, is, but He was also letting them know that He was revealing the Father, the Lord, to them as well.
So, let’s look at this “I Am” statement and continue this conversation with Jesus about who He is. Join me in John 6:26-40. “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (NIV)
This conversation happened shortly after the people gathered had seen Jesus feed the 5,000+ through the miracle of loaves and fishes. The people had been looking for them, and Jesus being who He is, knew that they weren’t looking for Him because of the miracles He had done and what those miracles said about who He is, but rather, because their bellies were full.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and mostly, when Jesus ministered to people He did so first by meeting their physical needs before showing them that they had spiritual needs too that only He could fill. In this case though, Jesus told them “Do not work for food that SPOILS, but for food that endures to ETERNAL life.” Bread and fish are great, but they are not what the people truly needed.
Like the Samaritan woman at the well, the people needed something everlasting, a source of life that would never run out. The people, like the Samaritan woman at the well were genuinely curious about this food that would endure to eternal life. They were seeking to satisfy a need, but they misunderstood what their need really was.
Jesus reminded them about the manna God had given to the Israelites in the wilderness. Exodus 16:4, 15 help us remember this as well. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” (NASB)
Manna was good, and it kept the people from starving in the wilderness. But Jesus told them that the manna that Moses gave them was not the bread from heaven that they thought it was. In fact, we see in Exodus 16:18-21 that if the people gathered more manna than they needed on any given day and had some left over, the next day they would find that it had rotted and was not edible. “When they measured it by the omer, the one who had gathered much did not have too much, and the one who had gathered little did not have too little; everyone gathered as much as he would eat. Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank; and Moses was angry with them. They gathered it morning by morning, everyone as much as he would eat; but when the sun became hot, it would melt.” (18-21, NASB)
Even as amazing as the miracle of manna was, it still spoiled. It was not food that would endure to eternal life. Only the true bread of heaven would satisfy what the people really needed. He was trying to help them understand that what is physical is temporary. They needed bread that would satisfy their souls.
And Jesus told them, “I am the BREAD of LIFE.” He is the one who is greater than manna, the true bread sent from heaven from the Father. He is the one who would satisfy them and would endure to eternal life. He told the people that whoever would come to Him would never be hungry again, and whoever would believe in Him would never be thirsty again.
Jesus came to fill them up, not with food that spoiled, as He pointed out, but He came to fill their lives with the presence of God.
This is what God has always desired, that His presence will be with us, that we will walk with Him every day, in relationship with Him, and in His ways.
Look at Deuteronomy 8:3, “And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord.” (NASB)
The Lord desires that we should get every need fulfilled in Him. That He be the one who sustains our lives day to day. That we come to Him for all things.
This is, after all, what He taught His disciples to pray for, isn’t it? Matthew 6:11, “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.” (9-11, NIV)
We often hear that verse and think that Jesus was telling us to rely on God every day for physical needs to be met, and that’s not untrue, but when we hold only that view, we miss the point, just like those who had gathered before Jesus when He told them that He is the bread of life. God can and does provide for our needs, but He longs for more with each of us. He desires for His presence to be our daily bread.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told those gathered who were listening to His sermon this, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV)
That filling doesn’t happen through food and water, but through the bread of life and the living water.
Jesus continued this conversation about being the bread of life, and told the people this, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:51, 53-58, NIV)
The only way to be filled with the presence of God, the only way to be righteous, the only way to be satisfied…truly satisfied in life, is through Jesus.
Jesus wanted people to be set free from the death that was brought by all the laws that the people clung to religiously. He understood what John Wesley put into words so well, that, “People have just enough religion to make them miserable.” Religion had made people miserable, making them always concerned about what was allowed and what was not, what was considered righteous or not. They had become so trapped in that way of life that they were kept from truly living lives of love that honored God. They were prevented by their own religious traditions and rules from truly loving people the way God desired. They were trapped in their sin, and there was no way out.
They heard Jesus talk about the bread of life, heard what it could do for them, heard how it could satisfy them for eternity, but when they heard that Jesus Himself is the bread of life, they lost interest. There came no statements that Jesus is the Messiah, there came no astonishment at what He had said like the Samaritan woman at the well.
They asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29, NIV)
This was all that was required. Believe in the one He has sent. No amount of sacrifices had been able to forgive their sins, not amount of righteous deeds had made them righteous in God’s eyes. Only Jesus, the bread of life, could do that. Only the very presence of God dwelling in them could set them free and enable them to live a life of love.
“But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” (John 6:36, NIV) Jesus saw their hearts, saw that they still did not believe, and likely would not come to believe in Him.
There is something for us to take away from this story this morning:
First, is that there is no amount of righteous deeds or religious living that will give you eternal life. Only belief in Jesus can do that.
Second, the work of God, the work He desires us to do is belief in Jesus, and doing God’s will. This is why Jesus came, not to do what He wanted, but to do what the Father wanted. When we come to belief in Him, we must do the same.
Third, if you want to have a life that is truly free, truly satisfying, that is only possible through living in Jesus, the bread of life. Apart from Him, there will be pain, struggle, grief, and oppression. Jesus desires to give life the way God has it.
We need Him. We must seek Him, and seek the life He desires to give.
1. What kind of things do you seek from Jesus? How has He satisfied those desires? Have you allowed Him to fill you up with what He desires?
2. Look at John 6:28-29 again. What did Jesus say is the work of God? What does that mean for us as we work to do the mission of making disciples?
3. How are you working for the “food” that endures? What kind of spiritual disciplines do you practice to feed yourself?