I Am the Bread of Life (John 6:22–59)

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

Melissa Kruger: This past March, I had one of those big birthdays, one of those milestone birthdays. I turned 50, and thank you the other 50 year olds here. And I had been warned by some of my friends who are a little bit older, yeah, when you turn 50, your body really does start kind of to fall apart, you know, just aches and pains, trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating all the things. And so since March, I can tell you that I have been to the eye doctor because the fuzzy eye syndrome. I mean, like, all of a sudden these words got smaller, a lot smaller. And all of a sudden, I’ve been to the ear doctor because I can’t hear correctly. My kids started whispering or something around me, and so I went to the ear doctor, and then I was having all of this, like radiating hip pain. So I’m at the chiropractor, and I I’m happy to make new friends at any age, but I would rather not have to pay them, and they keep saying really mean things to me, like, well, at your age. And so finally, I was discussing this with some friends over lunch, and one of those friends who had turned 50 a few years ago. She said, You know, one thing that really helped me, I actually went to this nutritionist. And when I went to her, she helped me understand that what I was putting in my body was really affecting things like inflammation and my sleep. And she said, You should go to her. You should try. So I call up sue the nutritionist, and I go into her office, and she does some tests, and she asked me some of my eating habits, and we have this little conversation, and all of the sudden she starts telling me the plan. And the first thing she says to me is, well, you know, you really need some more carbs. And in my head, I’m I’m thinking, Oh, okay, she must mean, like carbs from fruits and vegetables.

So I asked a clarifying question, because I was like, Maybe I heard her wrong, since my hearing’s also going and so when I asked her that, she goes, No, you need more bread in your life. You actually need to eat toast with breakfast, and you need to have a sandwich at lunch. Now, I’ll be honest, I almost had an awkward moment where I, like, went up. It was like, I’m gonna hug you, and we’re gonna be best friends forever. And so I go up and wait, and she’s telling me this, and then as I’m sitting in her office, I start laughing to myself, I’m sitting here in a nutritionist office, and I have been for the past four months studying this passage of Jesus as the bread of life, and I have a nutritionist telling me you need more bread. And I have to say, This is what the Lord so often does in my life. He takes physical things to help teach spiritual truths, and that’s what John is doing all through his gospel. As Jesus explains himself to the Israelites as he comes into this world and he explains himself. Here’s what we know. He’s the incomprehensible God, but he chooses to make himself known by what we know. And so he comes and he starts to explain who he is by using the stuff of Earth. I’m the bread of I’m the bread of life, I’m the vine. I’m the Good Shepherd. He takes what we know to make himself knowable to us.

So that’s what’s happening through the book of John. He’s weaving this through and as he’s explaining who he is, he’s performing miraculous signs and wonders to show that he is exactly who he says he is, and that’s what’s happening through the Gospel of John. He’s taking us on this journey to help explain who he is, and he’s showing us by the signs. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at John six. And so when we look at this passage, I want us to look at it through three ways. We have a persistent problem, there’s a surprising solution offered, and we have a difficult decision to make, so I’ll say that again. There’s a persistent problem, a surprising solution and a difficult decision to make. So if you will open your Bibles, turn with me to John 624 John 624 and to set the context of this passage, the day before this is when Jesus has just fed the 5000 so he’s just taken these bread, two loaves of bread, and he’s fed the masses. It was actually, was it two fish and five loaves of bread? Y’all correct me. Y’all can tell me what I did wrong. So he takes that he’s just done this big miracle of giving them the bread. And so now this text picks up right after that.

So read with me. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves gotten to the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they failed him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them truly, truly. I say to you, you are seeking Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves do not work for the food that perishes, but the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you for on him, God, the Father, has set His seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the workers of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent. So they said to him, then, what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly. I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread. Always. 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. Okay, so this passage highlights a persistent problem, and there are two problems that they’re facing. It’s what they’re seeking for satisfied, for satisfaction, and how they’re seeking to get it.

So it’s what they’re seeking and how they’re seeking. So in this passage, it tells us that they started by seeking Jesus, but he calls them out on that look back at the text. He says, Jesus answered them truly, truly. I say to you, you are seeking Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. It’s hard for us to imagine. But in the ancient world, you would spend your whole day trying to get food, and then you would wake up the next day and you would be trying to get food again. Hunger was a constant problem, and I am sure an Israelite would have thought to himself or herself, if I could just find a guy who can give me bread every day, I would be completely satisfied in life. I would have everything I need. Now, the reality we all know, we live in a world where many people do know what it’s like to have all they need to eat each day. In fact, we have a whole diet industry, so we will limit what we eat, and we know that just having that basic need met does not lead to ultimate satisfaction, right? I could go around this room, and even though most of us have had our fill of food today, I bet every woman in this in here has a longing, a hunger, that she’s hoping for. It might be situational. Maybe you want a new job, a new location, a new circumstance of some sort. Maybe it’s material. You think you need more money. Need home, a new car. Maybe it’s relational, friendship, spouse, a child, healthier relationships.

Maybe it’s physical. Maybe it’s your appearance, your health, your freedom from aches and pains. Most of us in this life look to the physical world, and we say, if I just had that, then I would be satisfied. What this passage is going to highlight for us is that underneath all of our physical longings, there’s actually a much bigger spiritual longing. And as much as we may try to fill our lives and go down every avenue of trying to find satisfaction, we will come up short time and time and time again. In fact, you often see people who get everything out of life, and they come up and they say, it’s just not enough. If you go back in songs through time, and often, these are people who have made it in the industry. I want you to think with me about some of the songs out there, and what they’ve said, if we go back all the way to 1965 the Rolling Stones and y’all, I wish I could sing, but I cannot sing. And I will not hurt your ears tonight, because unless your hearing’s really bad, it would be, it would be rough. So I’m not going to sing these. But the Rolling Stones wrote a song, and they’re famous at this point, right? They’ve made it. They have everything, everything they might want in career wise. And what’s the song they wrote? I can’t get no satisfaction, though I try and I try and I try. We have Peggy Lee in 1969 she had a song, is that all there is, and here are some of the lyrics, all searching for the Promised Land, tired souls with empty hands asking to themselves, is this all there is in the 1980s there was you too. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Sheryl Crow, in the 1990s if it makes you happy, why are you so sad?

Melissa’s version cleaned up for TGC, then I don’t know if you’re familiar with a new artist called Olivia Rodrigo before the age of 20. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Before the age of 20, she’d won three Grammy Awards, seven. Billboard Music Awards four, MTV Video Music Awards four. I Heart Radio Music Awards, two People’s Choice Awards, an American Music Award, a Brit Award and a Juno Award, and she was named times Entertainer of the Year for 2021 it’s pretty good for a 20 year old. By when she actually turned 20, she released a new song. It was called making the bed. Here are some of the lyrics. I’m so tired of being the girl that I am. Every good thing has turned into something I dread, and I’m playing the victim so well in my head, but it’s me who’s been making the bed. Here’s a line that she says, I got the things I wanted. It’s just not what I imagined. My 50 year old self would like to look back at her 20 year old self in a little bit of disdain, right? Like, what does she know? But you know what? I find myself resonating with her. I’ve gotten so many of the things I wanted, and it’s just not what I imagined. It’s not we, most of us, as we chase all these things for satisfaction, they come up empty. We’re like a woman who stands before the ocean and she’s desperately thirsty. She has a cup in her hand, and she thinks to herself, if I could just scoop down and get some of that water and take a drink, maybe then I would be satisfied. And if we were watching her, what would we all do? We would yell at her, and we would say, don’t drink. What do we know about ocean water? If you drink it, you’re only going to be thirstier still.

And if you keep drinking it, eventually you will die. It’s not that the ocean is a bad thing. The ocean is a really good thing. We’d love to look at it. We’d love to swim in it. It’s beautiful to behold, but it was never meant to satisfy our thirst. Us, and we go to the physical world trying to find spiritual satisfaction, it will never work, because it was never intended to satisfy us. So the Israelites are coming to Jesus, and they’re missing the Savior because they’re so focused on the sign they want more bread. It’s like taking a family trip to Disney World. And you keep passing the signs as you get closer and closer to Disney World, and all of a sudden you unpack the station wagon, I guess our minivan, I’m really too old. You unpack the minivan, and you sat on a blanket in front of a big sign that says Disney World, and Mickey’s there. And you say, Hey, kids, look, there’s Mickey and Minnie.

That may be the closest they’ve ever been to Disney World, but it’s not the real thing. The signs point to Jesus, but what they need is the Savior. So this is the problem, the first problem of our hunger. So often we go looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. The second thing we do is try to fill it in the wrong way. Let’s look back down at the text. You it says this, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you for on him God, the Father, has set His seal. T

hen they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Jesus starts out saying, hey, this food’s going to be given to you. And then they immediately say, What must we do? And this, there’s a whole world built there’s a whole self help industry built on this whole nation. What must we do? What can I do? And this is really part of the curse, if you go back in Scripture to the very first mention of bread. It’s found in Genesis three, and it’s when the effects of the curse are being unveiled and hear what it says by the sweat of your face, you shall eat your bread. Here’s what the curse tells you you are going to have to work hard to achieve what you need, and that’s what they’re living in. So when Jesus comes to them and says This bread is going to be given to you, he’s saying something very different. It’s it’s like when you’re in Narnia and the ice is starting to melt. And you know that Aslan’s on the move, there’s this question of, how can he say that? How can the bread be given to you whose sweat is going to earn it? Here’s the interesting thing, the only time, there’s only one instance where we hear of a man sweating in Scripture.

Can you think of where it is? One instance, gospel writer tells us it’s Luke 2244 and listen to what he says. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Do you see what’s happening here? The bread that’s going to be given is not free. It’s extremely costly. Are the sweat of our brow could never earn it for us, but Jesus came, and he lived a perfect life, and he died a death in our place, so that he might offer us eternal life. And all we have to do to receive that eternal life is believe the work has been done for us and we get to feast. The curse tells you you are going to have to work hard to achieve what you need. Let me say what the Gospel tells you you must believe to receive what you could never achieve. You must believe to receive what you could never achieve. It’s such good news, my. Friends, it’s such good news. The Gospel rolls back the curse and offers us true bread, and it offers us the escape from the curse, which is a life of what must I do? And the Gospel says we believe. We believe. So the problem of our persistent hunger is twofold. We seek satisfaction in the wrong things, and we seek to achieve it by our own needs.

We’re going for the for the wrong thing and the wrong way. And after this, the Israelites have this little conversation with them. They’re like, Okay, we hear what you’re saying. You say, we just have to believe we’re going to receive this bread for free. Why should we believe? You listen back at the text. What sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said, Truly, truly. I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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. So here they’re having this little theological conversations, which basically can be summarized by this, Hey, you gave us a meal once Moses did it for 40 years, we’re not that impressed by you and what Jesus, he quietly corrects them. He was like it was actually God who gave you that bread. And now there’s an even better bread before you. And they lean in and look at what they say, Sir, give us this bread always. And now at this moment, Jesus offers a surprising solution. What’s his surprising solution? He says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He is telling them he is the provision they need for the satisfaction they hope to experience. And by saying this, by coming to them and saying that he is the bread of life, I want you to know he’s telling them he’s the main meal. It’s not like in our world today, where you know you might have a roll as a little side dish meal, a meal in the ancient world often just consisted of bread that was a full meal.

That’s what they would eat. He is saying to them, I am everything you need to find satisfaction in this life. He’s saying that he is the main meal. And in a lot of ways, he’s hearkening back to a text in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 55 we have this amazing passage. Isaiah kind of positions himself as a seller in the market, and he says to them, Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. You who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest affair. And now Jesus stands on the scene, and he says the exact same words, come to me, and he’s promising that their soul will delight in the richest affair, he is the fulfillment of what Isaiah was talking about. He is the sole satisfaction that we need. He will sustain us because he’s the main meal. And he’s not just the main meal. He’s a satisfying meal.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had this situation in a restaurant. I’m terrible about this. I’m actually terrible to eat a meal with, because I suffer from what I call food envy. I didn’t even tell Courtney this. It happened the other night. So what happens is we put our order in, and I want to know what everybody else is ordering, because I’m terrified when theirs comes, I’m going to want what they got. And just, just two nights ago here in Indy, I’m eating with Courtney, and she had ordered this other chicken sandwich, and it came, and sure enough, I was like, hers looks way better, way better. And so I think sometimes when Jesus comes to us, he says, I’m the bread of life. We think, Was it really that great? Well, here’s the thing, it’s kind of good. Jesus didn’t come to them and say, Hey, I’m the peas and carrots. He didn’t say, I’m the broccoli of life. Aren’t we glad he didn’t say that. He appealed to Psalm. Name, he pointed to something that appeals to us all. Every culture celebrates bread. Every culture. Think about it, Pita, Nan bagels, biscuits, focaccia and Jared red tortilla, croissants. And even if you are allergic to gluten, we have gluten free bread.

Everybody wants bread. And guess what? Rich and poor want bread. Everybody wants it because it’s not just a meal that sustains, it’s a meal that satisfies. Jesus is saying, I’m the good stuff. I’m the thing that’s going to give life to your living. It’s not just eternal life, it’s life here. I’m going to satisfy you in such a way that you’re going to have abundant life. You just have to come and you have to eat. One thing I learned from my nutritionist is that I had fallen into a lot of really bad habits. I would get so busy with work during the day that I would forget to eat. And so I would go through my day, I’m in my day, and all of a sudden I get a headache, and I would be like, Oh, I guess I need I need to eat. I need to eat. And so I’d eat to try to get rid of the headache, but then I’d find myself at the end of day completely exhausted. And the reality is, she has come to me, and she’s like, actually, you need to eat bread in the morning. You need to eat bread at your meal. I feel like a toddler. I’m having to eat so much.

She keeps me on this plan, but she’s like, You have to keep fueling your body. And when Jesus comes to us and explains to us that he’s the bread of life, he’s saying, You need me for spiritual fuel in your life. And there are two things you probably need to do if you want to eat rightly. You need to plan when to eat, and you need to plan what to eat. And so here’s what I want to say to all of us, we have to plan time with Jesus in our life. I think often we think we have a busyness problem, and the reality is we do not have a busyness problem. We have a belief problem. You will fill your life with what you think is most important. And I know I watch you on Instagram. Y’all do hard things. I see like artisan bread loaves being made. I see women running businesses. I see y’all running marathons. Some people are raising chickens. Y’all are doing hard things. You can find time to spend with Jesus. You can find time to spend with Jesus, and you desperately, desperately need to do it. Plan daily time with Jesus. Plan rhythms, go to church every week, be in a Bible study, get time with Jesus in your life, and then plan what to eat. Now, this is a really thing we have to talk about. And the Jews disputed among themselves, and they asked this question. They said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat. What on earth does that mean? And Jesus answers, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in Me and I in him. Let me say what we’re not talking about. We are not talking about literally or physically ingesting Jesus, but we feed on him spiritually by faith, we take him in.

And this is something intimate in the ancient world, eating with someone was intimate, and now he’s saying no, ingest me, take me in, because what Jesus knows is what we all know. Did everyone’s mother say to them, you are what you eat. You know. We’ve all heard that, and by taking him in, we become like him. We will be so tempted in our lives to try to be harder, be better, work harder, do more. What must we do to earn God’s favor? And he says, Come to me, eat of me, and He changes us from the inside out, as we spend time with Him, we are changed. Isn’t it interesting that the I am statements begin with bread and end with the vine, which is what produces wine. Our whole Christian faith is centered around a meal we eat together so we remember the body and the blood that were shed for us. We take him in so that we might remember that we need him daily. Me so that we might experience abundant life. So Jesus is the surprising solution to our spiritual hunger, and that leaves all of us with a difficult decision, what do you believe about Jesus? This is the question of all questions. This is the question of your life. And it’s clear that his listeners were taken aback by what he was saying. When we look back in the Old Testament, you know when the Israelites were given manna, I mean the Israelites in the Old Testament, they were constantly grumbling about whatever God gave them, right? We know this. They grumbled. They grumbled, God provides. They grumbled. They grumbled, God provides.

And you know he finally gives them this manna. And you know their reaction is actually what the word manna means. Do you remember what it means in the Old Testament? When they see the manna, the word man, that actually means, what is this. And I have a feeling it was said a little bit complaining. It was like, Oh, what’s this? I think it was, what is this? What is this? What are you providing? And let’s look at the text. When we look back down in John 641, look what happens again. So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know the Old Testament? They looked at the manna, and they said, What is this? Now they look at Jesus, and they say, Who is this? Who are you? And let’s be honest, if any guy came to you and said, Hey, I’m the bread of life, I’m the light of the world, I’m the Good Shepherd, I’m THE WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, I would tell you to run as fast as possible away from him. Wouldn’t you tell your friend that it sounds like a classic narcissist. I’m everything. I Jesus is coming on the scene, and what he does not leave any room for is, hey, he’s a kind of good guy. He is either God. He is either who he says he is, or he is someone you should run fast and far away from. But if his word is true, and if these words are true, and if he is the bread of life, if he is the light of the world. If He is the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE, what will you do with Jesus? It is the only question of your life. It is the only question of eternity. And it is the thing Do not leave this weekend without answering. It is the question, who is Jesus? And friends, let me tell you, he is the bread of life. He will sustain you. He will satisfy you. You can chase every other pathway down, and you will never find life without him. He is the bread of life.

Open your heart to him, take him, come to him, eat from him. Believe in Him. And if you already know Jesus, if you have walked with Him, will you invite others to join the feast? I have a friend, her son has been in Ranger School this past spring. And what it’s such a difficult thing. And you know, we’ve watched your son go through this, and we prayed for him all the way through it. And one of the hardest things about Ranger School is that, normally, on a daily basis, you burn about 5000 calories, and they’re given 2000 calories, so most of these soldiers are literally starving as they go through Ranger School. In fact, one of the common things that happens to them is they start hallucinating. She told me that her son saw one friend, and this soldier went up to a tree and he started to put money in the tree because he was hallucinating that it was a vending machine, and he was so desperate for food that he was putting money in the tree. And friends, when we look around the world, when we look at people, there are a lot of people who are not seeing the world correctly. There are a lot of people who are going through their life and they are doing harm to themselves, and they are doing harm to others, and they are not walking in the ways that God intended. But what I want you to see is we should be the most compassionate for them. Them, because what they are is desperately hungry. They don’t see the world correctly. And while you can say all day long, hey, that’s a tree, not a vending machine, what they really need is the bread of life. They need Jesus.

Will you go out into the world? Will you go out into your neighborhood? Will you go out into your community, and will you love others enough to invite them to the feast? Will you be bold? Will you share with others because they are desperately star starving? It is the most compassionate thing you can do to share the truth of Jesus with others in your life. It’s the most compassionate thing that you can do. And then, just as a final encouragement to you, as you think about Jesus as the bread of life, let me encourage you keep coming. Keep coming to Jesus. Don’t think that because you ate a meal two years ago, you’re going to still be filled up today. We need Jesus every day. It’s daily bread. It’s daily bread. He is the one person who can sustain you and he can satisfy you. He is the surprising solution to the persistent problem that we are all facing. So sisters, I invite you, come to the feast, come to Jesus, taste and see that he is good. He is so good.