Word of Salvation – Vol.23 No.27 – April 1977

 

The Bread Of Life

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on John 6:35

Scripture Reading: John 6:25-44

Psalter Hymnal: 303, 386, 209, 319, 118

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, friends,

As Christians we will never be able to thank God enough for Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.  Because it is by Jesus that God the Father fills the empty spaces of our lives.  By Christ our most fundamental and powerful longings are realised.  In Christ believers are satisfied; the gnawing of a nameless hunger and thirst is stilled,

In place of anxiety comes peace
instead of panic, hope for those who come to know and trust God.

It is interesting to note how the Lord Jesus used every opportunity to teach people about God and Himself.  And to see how in the process Jesus teaches us so much about ourselves.

Jesus spoke the words of our text the day after he had miraculously given bread to a whole lot of people.  And this day the people had come for more.  Now our Lord used this occasion to teach them and us a lesson.

Just as we are interested in and need food, so we ought to be interested in Christ, for we need Christ.  For just as bread and water satisfy the cravings of our body, so Christ satisfies the longings of our soul and spirit.  And just as we are willing to go to great pains to get bread to feed our bodies when we are really hungry, so we must be willing to deny ourselves certain pleasures in order to feed our souls on Christ.

Yes, people are willing to go to great lengths to get food when they are hungry.  Many in the crowd, which Jesus fed, walked right to the other side of the lake of Galilee to find Him, to get more bread from him.  It makes one think of the many miles people walked, biked and pushed prams and handcarts in Holland during the war.  People gave everything to live.  Nothing was too much.  They went through rain and sleet.  They endured discomforts and blisters.

When food was scarce the value of luxury items dropped down to nothing compared with the value of food.  People realised that all the luxuries in the world are worthless if you don’t have food to live.

Nobody, unless he is an utter fool, is going to spend all his time in collecting and fussing over useless, if expensive, things while he is starving to death, while his body is screaming for food.

So Jesus reminds the crowd.  Do not work for food that spoils but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son will give you.

Jesus is saying: The life of the body, no matter how pleasant or important, is nothing compared with eternal life.  No matter how necessary our daily food and drink is (Jesus even teaches us to pray for it) it will never keep us alive for ever.  For that we need another kind of food.  For eternal life, for the satisfaction of our soul and spirit we need the food that comes from heaven, which gives life to the world.  Our deepest longings as human beings created in the image of God can only be met and satisfied by Jesus Christ the Son of God.

This is what Jesus told those people who came to him for bread.  He said, I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

He said this to people who asked Him for the bread of God Jesus had been telling them about.

These people thought that Jesus could give them this bread of God like he gave them the loaves and the fish the day before.

But Jesus told them that they were wrong in their thinking.  Wrong in their whole attitude.  They came to him because he had miraculously fed them.  They were interested in the miraculous gifts.

But Jesus teaches them and us that we should be more interested in the GIVER of these miraculous gifts.  The miracles are proof that He, Jesus, is the greatest miracle, the greatest GIFT of all.

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.

You know it is sometimes said by those who don’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God, that the New Testament is a collection of impressions of his disciples.  The disciples had all sorts of grand and wonderful ideas about Him, but Jesus never claimed anything unusual about himself.

Well, unless we make the Bible writers out for liars, (and if they are liars then we can know nothing for certain about Jesus at all) we will have to admit that Jesus makes tremendous claims for Himself.

It would be interesting and helpful to read through the gospels – particularly John – sometime and look for all the things Jesus said about Himself.  In fact that should be an important part of our Bible reading and study and meditation.

Very clearly Jesus thought and spoke of himself as someone very special.

By saying, I am the bread of life, Jesus claims that HE is the bread of God who has come down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Jesus is saying nothing less than that HE is the One whom God the Father has sent to give life to all who believe Him to be God’s Son and gift.

It is through Jesus that God gives men life.

The Bible has a lot to say about how dependent we are on God for life.  The mention of the manna which God gave the Israelites at the time of Moses reminds us of what Moses said to them at the end of their journey through the deserts and wilderness.

“And you shall remember all the way the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years that He might humble you testing you to know what is in your heart.  And he humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

In other words, man lives by the word of God.  By every decision God makes about him.  By everything God speaks and reveals about Himself and us.

The apostle John tells us that Jesus is the Word of God.
The Word of God by which God’s will was made known and realised.
The Word of God by which all things were made and by which we also live.
Without Jesus, the Word of God, none of us would be here at all!
Jesus saying, I am the bread of life, means to say
I AM THE ONE BY WHOM YOU EXIST.

More particularly here Jesus is talking about satisfying man’s hunger and thirst.

He who comes to me will never go hungry, he who believes in me will never thirst.
Jesus goes on to say that no one comes to Him unless the Father draws them.

He is suggesting that many who had come to him for the miraculous bread had not come to Him as the bread of life.

Why?
Why do so many not come to Jesus?
Why do many in fact walk away from Him the moment he starts talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood?

One reason is that many are not aware of their need.  Many are not consciously hungry.  Many do not hunger and thirst for righteousness.  They are quite satisfied with themselves.  Not poor of spirit at all.

To come to Jesus, the bread of life, we must know a longing, see a need, know an emptiness.

Some people learn about this from the Word of God – they learn to see themselves as helpless sinners through the teaching of the Word.

Others are forcibly shown by God how empty their life is.  Many believers who now rejoice in the love of God have gone through frightening moments of loneliness.  Moments when they clearly saw, I am nothing..!

God has humbled many a proud person who thought, I don’t need anyone.  God has shown them what it is really like to have no one to turn to, no one to lean on with the biggest problem of all: ourselves..!

O people can help each other carry many burdens.
But they cannot carry each other.
You cannot carry me
I cannot carry you.
This is what God shows us in our clearer, less distracted moments.
That we have nothing and no one to lean on but God himself, if we are willing to admit it.

But that is the hardest thing of all.  To admit this.  It is like losing your life.  It is like throwing every prop and support away.  But Jesus said, He who loses his life will find it.

He who comes to me…
He who looks at me and sees me as God’s gift for life eternal…
He who believes in me…
and trusts in me…
I will not turn away
He will never go hungry or thirsty.

No, we don’t have to understand everything straightaway.

Let us, if we believe in Jesus and see our need, be like Peter who said
“Lord we will stay with you
because you have the words of eternal life.
We believe and know
that You are the Holy One of God.”

Amen.