Jesus the Bread of Life — Reuben Walter

Praise God for His wonderful mercy this morning and His everlasting faithfulness and His love and provisions which we are aware of and are new every morning. This morning I'm especially filled with thankfulness for how the Lord from great, the other day, a great loss, especially thankful for that He gave us warning, especially grateful that He gave us the strength and the warning ahead of time, what a great thing could have happened.

And I'm grateful for that this morning and we should be grateful every day for our great love that He has towards us, our great Savior, our shepherd of the sheep, for His faithfulness that He showers upon us, that He does not leave us without comfort, without encouragement, without warning, without some kind of signs to know that He's still there.

That He's still with us, to show us confirming His love, confirming His faithfulness day after day. It's usually only in great events and crises where we get to see some of His great hand at work, but His hand is at work every single day.

His faithfulness and His love shows itself if we would only open our eyes and see it. If we would only open our minds to receive it. For we're worshiping a God who's not in the past, neither is He in the future.

He is now. He is now here. And this week I, because of several burdens on my heart, the Lord led me to the passage in John 6 this week, about the word for this week, for the message. And I believe it's as relevant today as it was for those people back then, and I believe it's as relevant for us today, here, as it's ever been.

Jesus the Bread of Life

And the title of the message this morning is, Jesus, the Bread of Life. Before we read His word, brothers and sisters, let us bow our heads. O God, we come before You this morning, humbled by Your great love and greatness, but at the same time challenged deeply by who You are and, Lord, who we are.

And that You love us in spite of who we are. And You are stretching forth Your hand and calling us and drawing us every day. And our shortcomings, Lord, they are evident. We fail to embrace what You have and what You've already done.

Father, may Your word touch our hearts today in a brand new way. May Your word be life and fresh and bring life as the bread of life as You are. Dear God, we turn to You for strength. We depend on You for Your mercy and grace.

And Your anointing that You may present us today with a living word that is able to transform this mortal flesh into living epistles of the Son of God. We bless You, Lord. Pray for strength in Jesus' name.

Amen. That's John 6. Title of the message is, Jesus, the Bread of Life. Start reading at verse 25. By way of introduction here, there's definitely no shortage in this world of the preached word. I don't think there's a real lack of that.

There's more Bibles in the world today than there are any other book in the history of humanity. There's more Bibles, and they're translated into more languages, and they're available to more people than there's ever been any other book in the history of humanity.

Also, there's also a great preached word going out in this land. Yes, there's many who distort the word of God, but there's also many who preach just what the word says. And this word is more than just word being preached.

As we'll see today, and from the words of Jesus, we know that this word that is going forth, and this word that hits our ears, and is absorbed into our minds and hearts, is more than just a word. And it's more effective than a word.

It is something that we can't fully describe to this very day. It's something that eludes human description, but it definitely is a reality. And it's a reality that we have not latched hold of in the fullest measure.

It is a reality that has not been, not flesh in us enough, as I see His word, and as we read it today. So here we find a situation, a scene, where Jesus has just fed 5 ,000 people with bread and a few fishes.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand and Rejects Earthly Kingship

And He saw that the people were coming after Him to make Him king. And He fled from them. He went into hiding. And as the people were looking for Him, I guess they couldn't find Him. So they took ship over this side of the Sea of Galilee.

They took ship and came to the other side. And there they found Jesus. Just that previous night. One translation says that He had walked across the water. That night there was a storm, but we're not going to go into that.

Here the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake. And this is what they said. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek Me not because you saw miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.

Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that we meet which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. For Him has God the Father sealed. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. They said therefore unto Him, What sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work?

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven, bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger.

He that believeth on Me shall never thirst. But I say unto you that you have seen Me and do not believe. All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and He that cometh to Me will I in no wise cast out.

I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which has given Me should I lose nothing, but I should raise it up again at the last day.

And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at Him, because He said, I am the bread of life, which came down from heaven.

And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He said, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, They shall all be told of God. Every one therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to Me.

Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

This is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. The bread that I will give is My flesh, and I will give it for the life of the world.

The Jews therefore strove amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Whoso eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him.

As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead.

He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Praise God for His Word. This is a very detailed passage that Jesus gave us here that challenges me to the core. A detailed passage that tells me there is more than we can even dream of that He's giving us in this passage here.

Beyond Salvation: Receiving the Life of Christ

He's given us a word here that is far more than just salvation, being saved from our sins. And He's given us a word here that is far more than what the people expected from Him as well. The scene here depicts Jesus running away from the people because they were seeking Him.

But what were they seeking Him for? They were seeking Jesus for what they could get out of Him. They were seeking Jesus for the next meal. For freedom from the cares and the troubles of this life. In short, mostly for their own interests.

They were seeking Jesus. And He quickly dispelled the notion that that's what He came for. And told them, please don't labor for this meat which perishes. Verse 27. Do not labor for the meat which perishes, but for the meat which endures to everlasting life.

Which the Son of Man shall give you, for Him has God the Father sealed. Brothers and sisters, here we see that Jesus is far more than what we can get out of Him. It is human nature to want what Jesus can give us.

The people were desperately in need. There was a lot of healing that needed to go on there. There was hunger there. There was needs with those people. And Jesus met those needs. But He showed them through this that He came more than just to meet those needs.

He came to empower a population so that they could be like Him. He came to empower a people so that they could empower others. And if we look at bread, that's exactly the illustration we get. Jesus used the illustration of I am the bread of life.

The Bread of Life as a Picture of Spiritual Nourishment

Think about food here for a moment. Physical food. What does it do? When we eat it up, we eat it. It enters our body and gets broken down. Gets ingested and then digested and then absorbed to every cell in our body.

And every one of the 100 or so or 300 nutrients that our body requires to live are being broken down and carried to every single cell in our body. And the body is alive because of the bread that we eat.

If that bread would not get digested and absorbed properly, it would pass through us and would not bring us life. We could ingest it day in and day out. If one part of our body system would not work properly to get it everywhere, we would not live very long.

And Jesus seems to tell us something here. It's not just hearing from me to get from me. It needs to hit you. It needs to be ingested in you and absorbed by you to such a degree that it becomes part of you.

That it becomes part of every cell in our bodies. The people here, they said, Lord, give us this bread. After he had to show them this here, and told them about the manna, they asked how? And he said in verse 30, no, verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent.

You know, how much of his word do we believe? We all have the Bible. Most of us have read through at least the New Testament several times. We have discussed it extensively. But some of the words he said here today are a little far-fetched yet, from my understanding.

They asked him how, and Jesus said, believe on him whom he has sent. Then the people said, well, our father's ate manna. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said, nope, Moses did not give you that bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he, not it which came down from heaven. Bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. You know, in a sense, the manna that fell in the wilderness was Jesus.

You can use it slightly as a type. It fell from heaven, and they were able to gather it every morning, and it sustained them. They gathered it fresh every day, and it gave them life. If they kept some back, it would become stale and dead.

But they gathered it every day, and therefore they could live. And so, we're not speaking physically here, we're speaking spiritually. And if we go further down, he says, verse 35, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. This is an amazing passage. Brothers and sisters, I'm not denying it, just like you, I'm sure you don't. Even though we know Jesus, and I'm convinced he knows us, there is an element about his presence and his spirit and his very life that we have not attained.

He said, you shall never hunger, and you shall never thirst. If we go back to John 4, when he talks to the woman at the well, he said those exact same words. He shall never thirst again, but in him shall be flowing up a spring of living water unto eternal life.

Spiritual Hunger and the Problem of Untransformed Reading

Brothers and sisters, we can read this word every day, and yet remain unchanged in our lives. We can read this word and talk about it, and yet feel in ourselves there is something yet not there, filled and running over, to be able to bring nourishment and life to others.

So I'm convinced there is more than reading and knowing of his word. This word has to become flesh of us, has to become part of us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone. Just like the bread we eat has to be absorbed into every single cell in our bodies, the physical bread, so Jesus needs to become so much a part of us that it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.

When he says we shall never hunger or thirst again, I can't help but draw a physical analogy there as well. I believe that when a child of God loses his, no, not loses his, but when he gets weak in his faith, weak in his devotion to God, when he becomes easily lured by temptations, when people who fall into covetousness or are enslaved by their passions have wandering eyes or desire the things of this world, when we fall for every fad or see what's going on in the world, I believe it's because we're hungry.

It's because of a hunger. Because a hunger in us has not been satisfied, therefore another hunger, the flesh, takes over, runs and eats and searches after the things that please it. But if the hunger in us has been filled and satisfied spiritually, I believe there should be no desire for the wrong things of a child of God.

For a child of God. There should be no wrong desire in us to follow after vanity, to fall into adultery or covetousness or be enslaved or have wandering eyes. It's because a hunger in us has not been filled and therefore another hunger takes over.

Many people become hungry. The food, the word of God, is not becoming part of every cell in our bodies. The more they eat of it, the hungrier they become. Something is not working in our physical bodies when that happens.

When we get hungry and eat and the food is not absorbed properly in our bodies, we get hungrier and hungrier and hungrier. And it just passes through us. And when it's not absorbed properly, that living word of God, when Jesus has not become part of us, that hunger has to be filled some other way.

And people try to quench that thirst and that hunger that's there. And the more they try to quench it, the more starved they become. Have you ever tried to live on Pepsi? Have you ever tried to quench your thirst with Pepsi or Coke?

The more you drink of it, the thirstier you become. It's the same with junk food when we eat it. The more we eat of it, it fills us up momentarily and then we have a bad feeling. When a good drink of water and a good source of quality food fills us up, satisfies us and also gives us energy, the required energy to live.

And it's the same way spiritually. We are a creature that needs to be fed. Just like we go to meals three times a day. We don't eat very long. Actually, we eat pretty fast. But then, for the rest of the time, the food is absorbed into our very being.

And as it gets absorbed, we find our bodies having strength and endurance. Like we experienced yesterday in real life, you don't know how much your body can take and how much endurance you got until you actually go and push it to the limits.

And if we're filled with that physical food, yes, we do have that required energy for life. And we are able to work and our work is for the production and the benefit to sustain us physically and sustain our children and those around us.

We are contributors in overall setting. Spiritually speaking, it's the same way. We eat of Christ. We turn back to where he said here in verse 53. He says, Verily I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. And he goes on to say that my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. As if it was physically.

He that eateth my flesh, drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. Up here further. Verse 50, This is the bread which came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. This is the key.

Internalizing the Word Through Meditation and Daily Life

It goes beyond reading of his word. It goes to the point where his word is absorbed in us. Where we sit and meditate on it. Where we, whether it's in a secret closet of prayer, whether it's on our way to work, whether it's while we work, it's every step of the way.

The food that we eat is absorbed and it gives us life just as Jesus said. When we read the word for 15, 20 minutes, okay, now we've done our duty. I've done my morning duty Lord. I've read your word. I've talked about it.

Now it's time to go to work or time to do this or do that. Of course, but this word, this living word becomes ingested and digested in us and absorbed by our spiritual being and we walk in a way and with a life that is not natural and not normal for a human being.

We become supernatural as his life becomes our life. Just think of it, if you would walk out of a banquet hall just with all wonderful good food and had just received everything you want and filled yourself up, you'd go out there, you would not feel hungry for the junk food vendors that line the streets of life that lure us into buying their wares for momentary pleasure eating.

We don't feel like it because we have been to the banquet hall. We've been to Jesus as we've heard last week in Acts that verse, then look it up here, but it's the same verse where it says, they took note that they had been with Jesus.

If we had been in Jesus' banquet hall, filled ourselves up and we walked down the path of life, the lures are those candy cane and vendors that line the streets of life that lure us away into this, into that for some momentary pleasure.

We will not be hungry for that stuff. We will not look for that stuff it is only after we have, if we don't walk into his, if we haven't come from his banquet hall, we feel so hungry. Anybody ever notice when you go shopping hungry?

You've got a special urge for junk food. Never go shopping when you're hungry. You fill your shopping cart with rubbish. When we go shopping with a full, well fed, we only buy what's good for us. Same with when we've been to Jesus.

All that junk food, all that rubbish that the world offers, does not lure us because our cells are being regenerated and filled with life. We don't feel for it. In verse 49 Jesus said, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, but they are dead.

Well, why did Jesus say that? They are dead. Of course everybody has died since then. Every single person on planet earth dies. What was Jesus saying here? This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that I may and may eat thereof, and not die.

It seems to tell me there is something far more going on here. And this far more is Jesus himself. When he said he was bread, that means he came down from heaven having no other agenda than to be at the father's disposal.

To be used by him for whatever purpose he has set for him. I think it says it here, came down not to do my own will. Yes, verse 38. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Christ’s Life Imparted Through Obedience and Service

So he came down for us, brothers and sisters, and that's more than a preached word. This is a word that gives life. It signifies how he came to become bread for us. Of course it started at Calvary. Without Calvary there is no life.

Without the remission of sins, without his finished work on the cross, we have no life. But here he seems to say that even as a child of God, we have no life, except he is constantly in us and feeding us and giving us life.

And this becoming bread was by affecting everyone around him in an eternal way. You know how he affected people? By his compassion, by his love, by his humility, by his patience, and his surrendered obedience to his Heavenly Father.

He never wrote a book that we could read. Others wrote about him. It's what he did in those three years that has changed the course of history. What one man did in total unity with the Father. That's what has changed.

And he gave bread to his disciples. He gave bread to the people around him. He gave bread to the needy, the sick, the afflicted, the ailing, the defeated, the poor and the needy, as it is written in Isaiah, to bind up the brokenhearted, to free the captives, to let go the chains, and on and on.

This is what Jesus was. He was a wellspring of living water, and a wellspring, and a tree of life, full of bread, ready for the eater. And brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus came to do for us. Not that we may ever continuously eat on him to get a momentary satisfaction, but to eat of him so that his very life may be imparted in us and others may start eating from us.

Others can eat life from our lives. He says, verse 57, As the Living Father sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Brothers, if that's a reality in us, it's impossible not to affect people around you.

It is impossible not to be affected by a life that's a living wellspring of water. And as, of course, as he gets absorbed by us, his words become true, a wellspring of living water. And I'm not denying a reality in my own life that this hasn't been always the case.

And every time there's inconsistency in our lives, it can be traced back that we haven't been eating. Yeah, we've been reading, discussing, but it hasn't become part of us in every single decision we make, every step we make, every thought we think.

It hasn't become flesh in us enough, and we find ourselves hungering after the rubbish and the junk food that the world offers. The lust of the flesh and the pride of life start to enter in. And sap away the remaining nutrients that we've already had and received.

And then, are we surprised when there's no life? Are we surprised when we have no strength? Are we surprised when we're just ambled from day to day just barely doing the necessities, not filled with life for others?

Imparting Spiritual Life to the Next Generation

One of the reasons I have this message here today is lately I've been burdened by why many of the youth, some of the youth are not affected as we think they should be affected. Yes, they're nice young people, but I can't help but wonder why aren't they running to Christ for their life and for their healing of their souls?

Is it because there's a lack of the preached word? Is it because there's a lack of Bible study, fellowship? I have to say no. Because fellowship and Bible study and the preached word has helped me tremendously as a believer.

I have been fed and nurtured and lifted up a great many times through fellowship. But I am a realistic person, and if this life that Jesus said here will spring out and run from our mortal bodies, somebody's got to eat from it.

Somebody has to be affected by it. And if anybody should be affected by it, it should be the young generation. And that burdens me. I have to ask first of all, Lord, is it me? Is it me that we're not imparting life?

Maybe we're just imparting a word. And it's not becoming life to them. Maybe we're not eating of the tree of life ourselves. Maybe we're eating too much junk food. Maybe some of us are even eating the forbidden fruit.

And then there's no consistency in our walk, not enough at least. And we're not disciplined enough as God's people. If we're not motivated enough, if we're not faithful enough in every little detail in our lives, could it simply be because we're not eating enough that food is not being absorbed in our bodies?

Rivers of Living Water Flowing From Believers

The tree of life. He said, I came to give life, and I came to give it more abundantly. Why do we often have to push, pull, and drag ourselves? I had to today, but I had a good reason for it. Why do we so often find, yeah, it won't matter if I forgo this, or if I forgo that.

It won't matter if I relax here a bit, take time to ease here a bit and there. Nothing really happens. But in reality, yes, something happens. Nobody's eating of us. Nobody's getting nourishment from our bodies.

Nobody's getting, not enough, getting life-sucking juice from this mortal body of ours. The Word has not flesh. And brothers and sisters, this is where we can all find ourselves, see ourselves, and ask ourselves, Lord, is there life-giving juice coming from my life?

John 7, 38 says, He that believeth on me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.