The Bread Of Life

Download PDF hereThe Bread Of Life
John 6:35

This verse is a metaphor for satisfaction of desires. Not just any desires, but spiritual desires, spiritual yearnings and spiritual quest for fulfillment. The words hunger and thirst are the metaphors here which points to desire. When we are hungry, we eat to satisfy or fill our hunger. When we are thirsty we drink water to quench our thirst.

Available scientific research suggests that a human being can live up to about three weeks without food if they have water. But without both food and water, a human being cannot survive for more than 4days. Their system will shut down and their kidneys collapse. This tells us the necessity of food and water for the sustainase of human life. In fact universally, bread methaporically represents life. So we speak of earning your daily bread. The Lord’s prayer says “Give us this day our daily bread” Every society has one form of bread or the other. Bread represents life. We eat to live. Bread represents survival. We eat to be alive.

This morning, I want us to consider for a title “The Bread of Life.” In life,everyone is seeking for one form of satisfaction or the other. There is no exception to this. Everyone is looking for something. Unfortunately, many seek for satisfaction in the wrong places. So we will consider two main subheadings: “False Satisfaction and True Satisfaction.”

Now as we go through the sermon, I am hoping that whatever desires or satisfaction we seek in this life, we will all properly align our desires and quest for satisfaction in the right place. God must be our ultimate satisfaction in this life because God cares for his own.

God the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will; to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy (LBCF 5.1)

As the providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, so after a more special manner it taketh care of his church, and disposeth of all things to the good thereof (LBCF 5.7)

And if you have never come to a saving relationship with God through faith in Christ, the most important alignment of your desires with God you need to make is to believe in Jesus. The text is mainly an invitation to you: “whoever comes to me shall not hungr, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” Two responses required from you. (ii) Come to Jesus, that is surrender your will to him (ii) Believe in him, that is, put your trust in him.

False Satisfaction 

I will define false satisfaction as simply seeking for satisfaction in the wrong places. And indeed there are many places people seek for satisfaction in life: drugs, alcohol abuse, illicit sex, material wealth, entertainment…people are on a constant quest to find satisfaction. The quest for satisfaction is universal and real. There is an emptiness in our hearts due to our sinful nature which we seek to fill but in the wrong places: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (Rom 3:10-11).

Many people are seeking for other things which has been caricatured as seeking after God. And the text before us is a real life example of how people are living their lives today  in the name of Christianity. They are seeking as it were the blessings of God rather than God himself. Look at (vv.22-26). The crowd from the previous day’s miracle of the multiplication of bread, went seeking after Jesus again. But Jesus will rebuke them and tell them the real reason they are following him— their stomach (v.26).

Why are you following Jesus if I may ask you. Are you following for who Christ is or you are following for what you will get from Christ. There is a difference in seeking after the bread giver and the bread. What are you seeking? The bread giver or the bread? These people were obviously seeking the bread. And Jesus rebukes them. Not only here, but in other places in John’s gospel, we see Jesus rebuking people for False belief especially after they have seen a miracle.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name ewhen they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus fon his part did not entrust himself to them, because ghe knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for ghe himself knew what was in man (John 2:23-25).

Dear friends, seeking after things rather than the giver of those things is a false pursuit which will leave you empty. Look at verse 27: “Do not work for the food  that perishes…”  This is like what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone”. These people were after temporal, perishable bread. Look at the effort they have put in to look for Jesus and unfortunately to look for him for the wrong reasons (v.24). It sounds good doesn’t, it? They were seeking for Jesus… but no no, they were seeking him for the wrong reasons. Again, for their stomach. Our desires, the things we seek after, the things that occupy our thoughts is a true reflection of our relationship with God.

What do you want? Jesus or his blessings?

True Satisfaction 

I defined false satisfaction as seeking satisfaction in the wrong places. I will now define true satisfaction as seeking satisfaction in the in the right place. And what is this right place? In Jesus: “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 (v.35). Jesus puts himself forward as the source of true spiritual life and satisfaction. Just like bread, as a source of physical life, Jesus is the source of spiritual life. He is the one who satisfies our deepest yearnings and desires and sustains us spiritually. He is the one who reconciles sinners to the Father. He is the One the Father has certified as the only source of life. God has put his stamp of approval on Jesus to give eternal life. That’s the point in v.27 “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for lthe food that endures to eternal life, which mthe Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

True Satisfaction can only be found in God’s approved way. St Augustine speaking about the emptiness of the human heart and our quest for satisfaction said in his book the confessions that “Thou hast made us for thyself and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee” The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, opens with the question “What Is The Chief End Of Man?” It answers “The Chief End of Man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever”.

Now it is important to put all these talk about satisfaction into proper perspective before you begin thinking of your dreams and visions for life. What you want to become in future. No, I don’t mean the achievement of your life goals and dreams. It is true we must all seek to live a fulfilled life. But that fulfilled life is nothing when you are separated from God by sin and are his enemy. The ultimate satisfaction in life is reconciliation to God. Like Augustine said, for our hearts to find its rest in God. The satisfaction I am talking about is knowing you have peace with God:  “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1).

Response

What must be our response to all of these?: “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” This is what you are to do. Come to Jesus in faith.

The crowd clearly teaches us there must be a response. After they heard Jesus, they asked “What must we do…” (v.28). Jesus then tells them what is needed— “believe in him whom he has sent” (v.29). Believe. Have faith. This is all that is required from you in finding true satisfaction. It is what is needed to be reconciled to God. But they were not satisfied. They push for Jesus to prove himself comparing him to Moses ( vv.30-31). Then Jesus answered pointing to his superiority over Moses. And says he is the true bread (v.32-33). Jesus is the bread of life who came from heaven and he gives eternal life. He died and rose again and offers himself as the bread of life to be believed in and received.

If you have never come to a point in life where you have sought Jesus, I beg you, come to Jesus. Believe in him. Receive his offer of eternal life by faith. Amen.

 

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