35 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.
Introduction
Here again, our Lord uses illustrations of the earth to communicate spiritual realities. That is one of the main strategies Jesus employed in his teachings and parables, and even miracles. Think of just a few of the examples of this we’ve seen in the gospel of John thus far. We now we find ourselves in John 6:35 where Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” On the one hand we could say, “what a simple metaphor used by our Lord, the great teacher, to communicate the profound truths of the gospel.” On the other hand we could say, “what a profound metaphor used by our Lord, the great teacher, to communicate the simple truths of the gospel.” Might we see those today, by God’s grace.
Jesus is here conversing with the crowds. Let us remind ourselves of the context: these crowds were fixated on their bellies and getting them filled. Jesus revealed that a few verses prior. So Jesus uses their longings for bread and to have their hungers satisfied, to teach them gospel truths of hungering and thirsting and finding satisfaction.
Jesus is the Bread of Life
The first thing to note about our text is that Jesus makes a statement: I am the bread of life. As Christians in our position we know that Jesus is the bread of life. However, notice the progression in this conversation with the crowds. In verse 32 Jesus says it wasn’t Moses who provided, but the Father gives the true bread from heaven. Then in verse 33 Jesus says that the bread of God is a person – it is he comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then in verse 34, however sincere the crowds may or may not have been, they ask Jesus to give them this bread that he speaks of. Then Jesus responds in verse 35 saying, “I am the bread of life.” He reveals himself to be that which he spoke of. Jesus of course keeps speaking through verse 40, but you can imagine as Jesus is talking about this superior bread from heaven the crowd is growing in anticipation to have this bread revealed to them, and then imagine the anger or disgust of the crowds when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” I am not picking on the crowds, we know that is their response because verse 41 tells us “the Jews grumbled about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’
The great human problem is that we despise what God has sent to us, his son. In our sin we would rather eat from the devil’s table and drink from the desires of the flesh and seek for satisfaction in the things of the world. Our sin gives birth not to life, but death. The devil’s food is poison and lies. Yet this is what the sinner prefers to the blessed bread of heaven sent from God which cleanses from sin, self, and the world, and brings us to God and immortality.
But to those who receive him, how precious and welcome is this heavenly meal of Christ our Lord, the Bread of Life. This is who Christ the Savior is: He is the food and life of the world sent from the Father to impart immortality to men.
What does it mean that Jesus is the Bread of Life? That whoever comes to him shall never hunger or thirst.
The mere manna left their fathers hungry. The manna was good for a meal. But when a man comes to Jesus Christ he never goes hungry and he never thirsts again. There is no competition to the bread of life. He is unmatched and unrivaled, and does what none other can do. Whoever comes to him shall not hunger and whoever believes in him shall never thirst. You can go and try other food and other bread, but it will not satisfy. You will be hungry again; you will thirst again. Jesus does what none else can do.
What does it mean to come to Jesus? To believe in him.
How do we come to Jesus? In faith. As Charles Spurgeon says, “It is not a motion of the feet, but a motion of the heart.” Coming to Jesus is not merely going to the church and being active in religion. It is not merely going and doing all sorts humanitarian works of charity. It is fundamentally a coming to Jesus in faith. It is a movement of faith, after which comes obedience and activity. Jesus said those who come to me shall not hunger, and then he explains what what the coming is when he then says and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. To come to Jesus is to believe him. It is a movement of faith.
What is it to believe in him? To take him for yourself and partake of him in faith.
Believing in Jesus Christ is not merely believing things about him. It is not even believing the truth about him as a set of facts or as a reality. It is not just an agreement with the truth. It’s certainly no less than that, but it is much more than that. There is plenty of people who have all the right doctrine and agree with it, but do not actually have faith in Jesus Christ. To say that is not at all to put down the pursuit of doctrinal precision and accuracy, in fact we encourage it and demand it of ourselves – its important, it matters, your life depends on it. But knowledge without genuine faith and regeneration does not save.
Each one of you must personally take and eat of the Lord Jesus Christ, exercising faith. None can do it for you. This is not mere doctrinal agreement. This is not mere acceptance or even approval of certain information. This is an experiential act of faith. Coming to Jesus Christ, believing in him, and having your hunger and thirst met in the Bread of Life is an experience that you personally must have. And I’m not talking about being able to point to a decision you made for Christ in your life, or some outward form of religion. I am talking about a true experience of faith, where you are given faith such that your soul finds rest and life in Jesus Christ as you come to him and believe in him. You must know Christ for yourself – not just intellectually, but you must know him with your whole person, you must experience what it is to rest in him and have the grace of God in your heart.
The Bread of Life must be actually taken and eaten. Imagine a poor man who is starving and has not eaten in weeks. His body is so weak, and finally someone offers him a loaf of bread. He’s so grateful for it. He thanks the kind person and tucks the bread away in his bag without eating and regaining strength from the bread. What good is the bread doing, as he carries it in his arms, if he does not take and eat? To receive the sustenance of the bread, he must eat of the bread! My friends, what eternal good is it for you to have family and friends all around you eating of the bread of life and giving it to you to eat along with them, and you walk around with the words of life in your hand, and you read them, and yet you do not take and eat for yourself, you do not believe and rest in faith in Jesus Christ!? One day when you stand before Jesus Christ the judge of the living and the dead, it won’t matter that you got “this close” to the truth, if you did not receive and partake of Christ himself. God has granted eternal life and he has done so in his Son, Jesus Christ. If we are not in Christ on that day, then we do not partake of immortality. We will face the second death, the eternal judgment of flames. It is not those who sit and hear and agree and nod their head and say amen who receive life, it is those who come and believe, and partake of Christ by faith.
Who is it that eats? Hungry people. Christ, the Bread of Life, gives himself for food for hungry people. If you don’t think you’re hungry, if you don’t know you’re starving for something more than junk food, you will be too prideful to come to Christ. We need to know our hunger and need for Christ. Don’t just be satisfied to be around the aroma of bread and see the sights of good food and others feasting. You must be made to be hungry and come to the bread of life, knowing there is nowhere else for you to go, and take and eat. God will often drive us to extreme hunger to reveal our need of Christ and drive us to partake of the bread of life. Sometimes God will have us nearly die of food poisoning from all the rotten foods we go to in this world, so that we see they do not give life, that we might come to the bread of life and live. Or sometimes God will rip away all the different things in our lives that we were trying to feed on that was keeping us from feeling our true hunger and going to Christ, so that we might feel our true hunger and go to Christ. What about you in your life? Have you been made sick, near death from the poison food of sin? Or has God taken your food from you, that you were going to for life, that you might come to Christ?
God made our bodies to feel hunger to drive us to eat food to sustain our bodies and our physical life. We must know that our physical hunger is not all that there is; and it doesn’t even make sense without the spiritual.
Hunger and thirst are the most fundamental needs to our physical bodies. As our Bread of Heaven and Living Water, this is what Jesus does: he satisfies our most fundamental needs – fear of death, forgiveness of sins, and being loved.
The object unto which we go and believe in
To reiterate what should already have been obvious, note the object of the coming and believing. That which we are to believe in, and unto which we are to go, is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The bread of life. It’s not just going anywhere. It’s not just believing in anything, even if you really believe it in sincerity. Your faith must be faith in the right object – the right person. Faith itself does not save, it is the instrument that attaches us to the one who does, the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing and no one else satisfies your hunger and thirst, and gives life.
He is the Supreme Satisfaction
Note here that Jesus is Supreme Satisfaction. When you partake of Christ you will never hunger or thirst. Nothing and no one else can do that. He is supreme satisfaction.
What is it that Jesus has prepared for us that he invites us to? A meal. A feast. Food! A meal always tastes better when you’re eating it with family or friends and your happy and laughing and telling stories, because that’s what meals were made to reflect. The supreme satisfaction of Christ! There’s nothing worse than eating a meal while sad or angry. What happens? You lose your hunger, and the food, no matter how good it might be, is just dissatisfying. It’s because our being is more than just physical bodies. Joy, happiness, and supreme satisfaction begins and ends in Christ and everything makes sense from there. When you know that your sins are forgiven and you’re accepted before God because you’ve experienced the love of God poured out into your heart and the Spirit testifying to it, you can laugh about anything and enjoy any meal. If Jesus is our supreme satisfaction everything else makes sense. But if he is not our supreme satisfaction, nothing else will satisfy. Something will always be off. You’ll always be left wanting more. Where Jesus is received, he is supremely satisfying.
There is something Charles Spurgeon said about the satisfaction of Christ that makes me think of Colossians 3:11 where it says “Christ is all, and in all.” And this is what Spurgeon said, “I could not desire more than all and Christ is all.”
Gospel
While the call and command to come and believe in Christ is implicit in this verse, as we have spoken much of, this verse is not a command. It is not law. It is a statement and a promise. The statement: I am the bread of life, Jesus says. The promise: whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Friends this is a promise. Those who come to Jesus will not hunger and those who believe in him shall never thirst. It is a promise.
Our coming to Jesus is receiving of Jesus. We come to him to receive from his hand. To eat of the meal he has prepared with the work of his hands. We come to receive the finished work of Christ.
Jesus does not disappoint. Do you realize that you never hear of any stories of people on their deathbeds who say that they wish they hadn’t come to Jesus? You hear the opposite kind of stories, don’t you?
Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? The world only has stale bread to eat and poisoned wells from which to drink. Come to Jesus Christ today and eat of the Bread of Life.
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