Would you turn with me tonight to John 6, John 6 as we read together verses 25 through 59. Now as the bulletin of this morning indicated, we begin a new series tonight that will lead us, the Lord willing, up to our observance of Good Friday of our Savior's crucifixion, and then also to our celebration of His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Now the series that we are going to begin is taken from select passages in John's Gospel which deal with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is important because when we speak of the person and work of Christ, that is, who He is and what He has done, we need to understand that His work on the cross would have been impossible if He were not the person that He was and is. Now the context of the passages that we hope to be considering over the next several weeks throughout March and April, the Lord willing, is a time in our Lord's ministry when He was performing many miracles and the crowds were beginning to wonder if just maybe He could be the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus had already asked the disciples in that familiar question recorded in Matthew 16, who do the people say that the Son of Man is? And you may recall that the disciples report that word on the street suggested that he was John the Baptist or maybe he was Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. And then, of course, Jesus says, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? Which then, of course, brought forth Peter's beautiful confession that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But now with this series of sermons, we want to focus not on whom the people or the disciples said that Jesus was, but we want to focus on whom Jesus Himself said that He was. And in John's Gospel, we find recorded some interesting teachings from our Lord Himself about Himself, and they begin with the words, I am. I am. And therefore, the Lord willing, over the coming weeks, we will consider these seven I am's of the suffering servant. I am the bread of life, which we consider tonight. I am the light of the world. I am the door or the gate for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine. We could also consider the passage where our Lord says, Before Abraham was, I am. But we will not be considering that one together. But these other seven, the Lord willing, we will consider together. Tonight, we begin with the first. We read together verses 25 through 59 of John chapter 6. Our text being verse 35. Hear now the Word of God. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, the context here is after the feeding of the 5,000. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him, God the Father has placed His seal of approval. Then they asked Him, what must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, the work of God is this, to believe in the One He has sent. So they asked Him, what miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who 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. Sir, they said, from now on, give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, 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. But as I told you, you have seen Me, and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. At this, the Jews began to grumble about Him because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? Stop grumbling among yourselves, Jesus answered. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, they will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. No one who has seen the Father except the one who is from God. Only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth. He who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My body is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, But he who feeds on this bread will live forever. He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Verse 35, Then Jesus declared, 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. Beloved of the Lord, the day before, the multitudes that have been following Jesus, whether they realized it or not, they had experienced an awesome miracle. Jesus fed the multitude of 5,000 with the five loaves and two fish. Now, whether the multitude knew that the original portion on the table, in a sense, that it was only five loaves and two fish, we don't know. Some did. But I suspect that most did not. But it's clear that they did know that this man, they did recognize that this man called Jesus. Because of that miraculous feeding, they did realize that He could provide for their physical needs. So therefore, could this be the One? Could He really be the Messiah? You see, they were all ready to make Him king. Verse 15, before what we read, Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself. You see, their idea of the Messiah was that life with Him would be miraculous in the physical sense. Fruit trees would always bear fruit. There would always be grain in the field for harvest. With the Messiah, there would always be luxury and of course, safety. Protection. Especially from the Romans of that day. Of course, we know that God's people will enjoy a peace and prosperity in heaven that not one of us can even begin to imagine what it's like in this life. But the Jews of Jesus' day were thinking in terms only of this life. But Jesus then exposes their ignorance in verses 26 and 27. I tell you the truth. You are looking for Me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him, God the Father, has placed His seal of approval. In other words, Jesus says, Don't be led by your stomachs. Don't be concerned with temporary food that perishes or spoils. Don't be concerned with the temporary nature of this life. But seek God's eternal food. And of course, he goes on to make some bold claims about himself. And the people realize that this man is now saying something that sounds a little bit strange to them. They're not sure if they like what they hear. And whereas they were ready to crown Him king the night before, now they wanted His credentials. Who are you? Who do you say that you are? How can you prove it? Notice verses 30 and 31. So they ask Him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And therefore then, whether they believe Him or not, Jesus gave His credentials. I am the bread of life. And as we consider this first I am of the suffering servant, we notice first of all the origin of this bread. Secondly, the partakers of this bread. And then finally, the effect of this bread. Now this analogy of bread, it's an analogy that the people then and people today, us, even the boys and girls among us can understand. We know what bread is. We know what bread is for. We know what bread is supposed to do for us. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in our third point. But this self-identification of Christ, which is what this is, this self-identification, was especially fitting here since bread was somewhat on their minds from the day before. As Jesus points out, you look for Me not because of the miraculous signs, but because you ate. Because your bellies were filled. Yet this bread that Christ speaks of wasn't exactly what the people expected, especially as Jesus teaches of the origin of this bread. And now the first thing we need to consider with regard to the origin of this bread is something that is common to all of the I Am statements. Therefore, it's something that we want to keep in mind throughout this series of sermons. And that is Christ's claim right off the bat with these two little words. I am. Now the construction or the structure of the original language shows that the emphasis is on I am. That's where the emphasis lies. The same Greek words which bring forth that emphasis are used in each of the I am statements. and really it's a rare construction. Pretty much, I believe, kept to the I am statements except for the fact that the same construction is used in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and in Exodus chapter 3 where Moses stands before God in the burning bush and there God identifies Himself as I am. The very same construction. This construction, along with the fact that the subject of this I Am statement is the bread of life, which means that the phrase really says the bread of life is I, so that the focus is on Christ and not on the bread. These two things then teach us that the I Am's call attention to Jesus' claim of deity. He claimed to be God. And you see, this is something that His hearers caught. It didn't escape their attention. They understood His claim to be God. Now again, we want to keep all of that in mind as we consider each and every I Am. But then here in this text, Jesus goes on to give more information about the origin of this bread. Again, the crowd caught Christ's claim to be one with God. So they ask in verse 28, What must we do to do the works God requires? To which Jesus answered, The work of God is this, to believe in the One He has sent. Well, the people then go on to continue with this food and bread theme by telling Jesus as if He didn't already know, by telling Him about what God did in the Old Testament. Well, God manifested His presence by providing food in the desert. Our forefathers ate bread from heaven. So Jesus, what's your sign? What's your sign? Prove yourself. But Jesus reminds them again in very specific terms that it was not Moses who gave the Israelites the bread from heaven. Moses was the mediator for the people. He was the one who announced that the manna would come, but he was not the provider of that manna. It was the Father in heaven who gave that manna. And then Jesus identifies Himself not with Moses, but He identifies Himself with that manna from the Father in heaven by saying, it is My Father who 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. In other words, you want a sign? Look at Me. I am the sign. Of course, this was all, no doubt, somewhat confusing because they knew Jesus as being from Nazareth. They said in verse 42, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? It's as if they're saying, what's this guy trying to prove? Who does he think we are? We know who He is. We know where He's from. And like the disciple Nathanael, possibly many of them thought, what good can come out of Nazareth? But Jesus doesn't speak of His origin as Bethlehem or Nazareth or even the womb of Mary. But He speaks of His origin as being heaven. Heaven. He is saying, I am the One the Father sent. And His ascension later on, beloved, was intimately tied to His descension or His coming. Even as Paul says, who is the One who ascends, but the One who first descended. They're tied together because the idea of His ascension is that He returned to a particular place for a particular task, which is the place from where He came in the first place. He returned to the Father who had sent Him. And that's why Jesus could say in John 10, verse 30, I and the Father are one. Jesus makes His heavenly origin very clear in this passage. He Himself was the sign from heaven. But He also makes it clear why so many did not recognize the truth of His words and why they didn't recognize the truth of who He is. He teaches here as well about the partakers of this bread. The text says, He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. He who comes and he who believes in Christ. Beloved, to believe on Christ is to receive God's testimony about His Son, His testimony through Scripture by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. To believe on Christ is to rest on Him alone for salvation. And of course, there's so much that we could say about what it means to believe in Jesus, but simply put, it means to believe that I need salvation. And that only He can save me. And then the effect of believing on Him is to come to Him. To come to Jesus means for the heart to go out to Him in loving confidence. It is to approach Him in a spirit of submission and trust and to rest in Him as our all, receiving Him and all of His benefits by grace as our Savior. You see, the idea of coming to Him is that our whole direction of life and our whole direction of living is to be in the direction of Him. It's to be toward Him. Facing Him. Therefore, with our back toward the devil. To believe in and come to Jesus is to partake of Him by faith. But then who are those who partake of this bread? If you still have your Bibles open, follow along with me. Verses 35-44 once again. Then Jesus declared, 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. But as I told you, you have seen Me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. At this the Jews began to grumble about Him, because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? Stop grumbling among yourselves, Jesus answered. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. Earlier, the people had asked Jesus what they must do to do the works of God. And Jesus said, believe in the One He has sent. And now He is teaching that no one can believe on their own. No one can believe by their own strength or their own ability. Those who partake of this bread are those who come to and believe in Jesus. But those who come to and believe in Him are only those in whom the Father works to bring them or to draw them to the Savior. And then who are those in whom the Father works? Well, as the passage says, those whom He has given to the Son. In John 17, Jesus also prays to the Father about those the Father gave to Him. Congregation, this is a beautiful passage about predestination. Of course, those who don't believe in predestination don't like this passage for that reason, and they find a different interpretation. And there are many who, because of those who don't like the word predestination and the teaching of predestination, many in the Reformed Persuasion don't dare to talk about it. But it's a beautiful passage on predestination. About who come. About how they come. And about the fact that they will indeed come. You see, beloved, those who will come to the Son are those whom the Father has already given to the Son beforehand. Who are they? Paul says in Ephesians 1, verses 4-6, For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will and to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the one He loves. Paul makes it clear that God chose or elected some before the creation of the world those whom He already knew by name and He chose them to be redeemed by the blood of Christ. Because of sin, no one is able to respond to the call of the Gospel to come to Jesus on their own. You see, man's natural inclination, his natural direction or desire is to get as far away from Jesus as possible. Jesus said, no one comes to me unless... That little word unless is a very important word. It means that a necessary condition must be met before the desired thing happens. And here, the necessary condition that must take place before one will come to Jesus is that the Father must draw that one. You see, just as the Bible says, The leopard cannot change its spots. In the same way, apart from the drawing power of God, man can't come. He won't come to Jesus. The natural man is powerless to come unless God gives him the gift to come. And that gift is not for all. Again, something so many have trouble with. Just as Jesus did not come to save all, That gift is not for all. Jesus came to save a particular people and He saves them without fail because they all come. And they all will come to Him because the Father draws them. What does that mean? Well, some would have us believe that the word draws means to entice or to woo or to persuade in the sense of begging. as if to lay all the goods on the table and try to convince one to decide to come as they look on that table and see the benefits of coming. But that's not what it means. The same word is used in John 18, verse 10, which says, Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant cutting off his right ear. Or Acts 16, verse 19, when the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the multitudes. And there are other passages that deal with dragging off to prison. You see, in these and a few other places, the idea is that the one being dragged or the thing being drawn or dragged could not resist what was taking place. God draws His chosen to Jesus. To use a double negative, they can't not come. God's grace is irresistible. I know that I've used the illustration of drawing water out of a well before for you, but think about that again. If you want water out of the well, you don't beg it to come out. Oh, water, please come. Please, won't you come? It's a lot nicer outside of the well than it is down there. So please, come up. But no, we pull the water up in the bucket. It's drawn out of the well. The difference though, for example, compared to one being dragged off to prison against His will, is that when God draws one, He does not come kicking and screaming. That one is not drawn against His will. And that's because that one has been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. That one has been given a new heart with a new will and a new direction. That one no longer has scales blinding his eyes so that he cannot see the truth and the glory and the grace of God, but that one sees how beautiful the Savior is. That one is attracted to the Savior and can find no place he'd rather be than in a safe embrace of the Savior. Many in the church today think and believe that the church, man, can and must change hearts. But that's not our job. Why? Because God has not equipped us to do that. That's His job. Indeed, He may use His people as the means to change the heart of another. He does use the preaching of His Word to work faith in the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our job, beloved, is not to make one eat of the spiritual food, but our job is to make sure that it's on the table. And that's why the elders have such an all-important task of overseeing the preaching of the Word, to make sure the food is on the table. The Word of God is to be central in our worship and in our lives. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. And what an amazing effect this bread gives to those who partake in true faith. Again, the text says, then Jesus declared, 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. Now with the analogy of bread, it only makes sense that the effect would be some sort of satisfaction. And by speaking of both hunger and thirst being satisfied, Our Lord points to full and complete satisfaction. Beloved, we need to understand our Lord, first of all, to say that He is the one and only bread of life. There is no other that gives spiritual and eternal satisfaction. All are in need of satisfaction because apart from Christ, all are dissatisfied. But many look for satisfaction in many different places. In relationships, in work, in money, in education, or in all sorts of activities. But it's useless to look for spiritual satisfaction anywhere else because only Jesus truly satisfies. Again, picking up the analogy of bread, we know that bread is important. Back in the days of our Lord, it was the main course. Today it's on the side. But still, bread, as well as Scripture, points to food in general. And we know that mankind, as human beings, we need a daily supply of food. Food sustains this physical life. But we know that physical bread and physical food only satisfies temporarily. It's only a matter of time and we're hungry again. Boys and girls, I'm sure that all of you, no doubt, ate something since breakfast this morning because your breakfast didn't last all day. In fact, you're probably looking forward to a snack before bed tonight. Jesus told the people that the manna that they boasted of on behalf of their fathers didn't last. Yes, He said, your fathers ate the manna. But what still happened? They died. But what happens to those who partake of the true bread of life? Life. Such a beautiful word. The idea in the Greek is that those whom the Father draws to the Son come to Him and keep on coming to Him. They believe in Him and keep on believing in Him. It's a never-ending coming and a never-ending believing because Jesus Christ is the source of never-ending satisfaction. And He makes it clear in this passage that we read over and over again that the effect of partaking of Him is an eternal effect. Notice again verse 27. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. Verse 37. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. 39 and 40. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day, for My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up the last day. Verse 47, And I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. 50 and 51, But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And then verse 57, Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. Life, not death. Beloved, this morning it was our privilege to come together to the Lord's table. That table is an emblem of Christ's greatest work ever accomplished on the cross. And as well, it is a sign of the greatest miracle ever done, the resurrection, His resurrection. This table is also a sign of that great heavenly banquet of never-ending satisfaction. You see, beloved, without the cross of Jesus, there would be no food on His table. The cross is where Jesus Christ became the bread of life. And just as the wheat must be ground and the dough must be kneaded and pounded and worked and the bread must be baked in the fire, so also Jesus Christ was ground and pounded and subjected to the fierce fires of God's holy wrath as He took our place in judgment. The bread of God was bruised and pierced for our iniquities. Now that tiny piece of bread and that small sip of juice that we tasted this morning didn't even physically last until the end of this morning's service. In fact, it really gave no lasting satisfaction all by itself. But for those who truly believe and whose souls feasted on the body and blood of Christ by faith, they will never ever hunger and thirst again. Once again, all are in need of spiritual satisfaction. But those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ not only starve for eternity, but they starve themselves for eternity. But for those whom God draws to the Son by grace through faith, so that they understand their sin and misery and their need for a Savior and look to the Lord Jesus Christ, they enjoy never-ending satisfaction. They enjoy a living hope even today. the hope of a life in the hereafter with God. They enjoy comfort in times of distress and sorrow. They enjoy contentment in God. For them, God makes this life livable. And for them, all of the blessings of this life from the hand of God are but a foretaste of the blessings of His glorious presence in heaven. Well, what does this mean for today? What does this mean for this life? We see those who are satisfied with Christ are no longer hungry. And therefore, they will not be tempted by the appetizers and the smorgasbord that the world offers. They will not seek their salvation anywhere else. For example, they will be content with their own spouse and not look anywhere else for companionship. They will desire to fill their hearts and their minds with good things and therefore they will choose what they read and what they see on TV and in the theater very carefully. They will not live and work according to the selfish attitude of the world, but they will live and work according to God's law of love. They will seek to answer life's questions. What job should I do? What college should I go to? Whom should I date? What should I look for in a spouse? They will seek to answer life's questions according to what God teaches in His Word. looking for wisdom from the Word of God. As well, God's people will not deprive themselves of the food of the Word of God, but will crave to feast of the preached Word of God and will seek nourishment daily through reading Scripture. Beloved, those satisfied by Christ enjoy contentment in God and God alone and they desire to honor Him and be obedient to Him. You see, many are starving today. Many are starving. And may it be our desire by the grace of God to share the blessings that we have been given in whatever way that we are able. And may we praise God for not leaving us in want, but filling us with His Holy Spirit and nourishing our souls with His Son through His Word. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, as we consider again that season of the year which draws near, as we consider in a special way, a particular way, the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You and praise You for Him. That indeed He is the bread of life. that He is the one who satisfies all of our needs and all of our wants. We thank You, Father, that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself to death on the cross in our place, that indeed through Him we might have life and have it abundantly. Father, we pray that You would indeed help us to go forth from this day and from day to day as You satisfy us with the good things of Your Word, the good things of Your Son, that we would indeed be able to take what we have learned, what You have taught us, to apply it to our lives in the various situations of life that we encounter. Oh, Father, give us wisdom to make this application from day to day. That as we go through the tasks and duties of each day, we might think back to the Word of God and what You have taught us. That we might remember that we live by strength. Strength from the very bread of life Himself. Lord God, thank You for Your holy Word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.