I Am the Bread of Life

Introduction to John 6 and Jesus' Initial Encounter with the Multitude

0:07 God's word to our nation. With our host, Pastor Albert N. Martin. We believe that the Bible is God's word and the gospel is a message of new life and liberty.

0:19 So keep your Bible open for this broadcast because as Pastor Martin preaches, he would like you to see the truth in your own copy of the scriptures. But you'll need more than an open Bible. You'll need an open heart, ready to receive and obey the word of God. At the end of the program, we will be giving you some information about the church that sponsors this broadcast.

0:43 But for now, open your Bible and open your heart and join us for today's sermon.

0:51 Will you follow, please, in the scriptures as I read a portion of the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 6.

1:08 The opening section of this chapter records our Lord's feeding of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 5,000 on one side of the lake or sea of Galilee. And then the record of our Lord visiting his disciples in that night watch as they crossed from one place to another. And then in verse 22, John picks up the narrative.

1:32 On the morrow, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there save one and that Jesus entered not with him, but with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples went away alone. Howbeit, there came boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

Jesus Distinguishes Physical from Spiritual Food and Life

2:14 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you, for him the Father, even God, hath sealed. They said therefore unto him, Why? What must we do that we may work the works of God?

2:46 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What then do you do for a sign that we may see and believe you? What are you working? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat.

3:09 Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life unto the world. They said therefore unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.

3:40 He that comes to me, he shall not hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that you have seen me and yet believe not. All that the Father gives me shall come unto me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.

4:07 And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and believes on him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, how does he now say, I am come down out of heaven?

4:48 Jesus answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father that sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every one that is heard from the Father and learned comes unto me.

5:10 Not that any man has seen the Father, save he that is from God, he has seen the Father. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

5:30 This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. Yes, and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

5:50 The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore 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 not life. Life in yourselves. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

6:22 For my flesh is meat indeed, or true meat or food, and my blood is true drink. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he that eats me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died.

6:55 He that eats this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. All that the Lord Jesus ever spoke was truth, undiluted, unmixed, pure, unsullied truth. This had to be so because he himself was conscious that he spoke only that which his Father gave him to speak.

The Authority and Truthfulness of Jesus' Words

7:27 He asserts this many times, particularly in the Gospel of John, and one of the clearest statements of this is found in John chapter 12, verses 49 and 50. I spoke not from myself, but the Father that sent me. He has given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life eternal.

7:54 The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak. There is a negative word, there is a positive word, and then an explanative word. What is the negative? Jesus said, Except you eat, and a form of the verb is used which points to a once-for-all eating.

The Negative and Positive Implications of Eating Jesus' Flesh and Drinking His Blood

8:20 Except you may once-for-all eat of my flesh, and except you once-for-all drink of the blood of the Son of Man, eat his flesh once-for-all, drink his blood once-for-all, you have no life, life in yourselves. Now imagine how this staggering statement must have fallen upon their ears. They are very much alive. They have crossed over from one part of the lake to another in order to be where Jesus is.

8:57 Their physical life had been sustained by his miracle the day before. He says, You ate of the loaves and you come again because you want your bellies filled. You haven't seen the significance of what happened. They were very much alive.

9:10 Eating, breathing, looking, talking, yet Jesus says, Except you eat once-for-all the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink once-for-all of his blood, you are utterly devoid of life. That's what he said to them. That's what the text says. That's the essential substance of the first part of this word to those to whom he spoke.

9:37 But then there is the positive. Look at verse 54. Jesus said, It goes on then to say, He that eats. Present tense.

9:48 And he uses a different word. There is a standard word for eat in the New Testament. It is used literally dozens and dozens of times. But here our Lord uses a word that is found four times in this context.

10:03 Here in John chapter 6. It's found in verse 56, 57, 58. So with its presence here in 54, four uses. Only other two uses in the New Testament.

10:16 Matthew 24. And again in John 13. And it's a word that means literally to munch. It means to nibble.

10:28 It means to crunch. It is a word you would use to describe ravenous animals who continually tear and tear and tear and consume the flesh of the animal which the predatory animal, the animals have downed and killed. And Jesus here is saying, He who is continually feeding upon my flesh, and again a present tense, He who is continually drinking my blood, and now he says two things of such, has eternal life. Those who continually crunch and munch and nibble

11:13 and feed upon my flesh, and continually drink my blood, two things are true of them. They have, right now, eternal life. Eternal life is their present possession. Their inviolable possession.

11:31 They now possess and will continue to possess into the endless eons of eternity that quality of life that is called in Scripture eternal life. And secondly, Jesus said, All who continually feed upon my flesh, continually drink my blood, I will raise him up at the last day. Then he gives an explanative word in verse 55. For, with that little particle of logical connection, for, why is all this true?

12:06 For my flesh is meat indeed. My flesh is true food. Real food. And my blood is real drink.

12:20 He is saying, Whatever you may have known of any kind of food that has satisfied your physical hunger, whatever your fathers may have known of that supernatural food sent down from heaven in the wilderness called manna, whatever you may have experienced of the food that came from my hands yesterday, the multiplying of the loaves and fishes, all of that, all of that food in terms of the issues that really count is non-substantial. At best, it meets an immediate need and points to greater needs and to greater fulfillment of need. But all that I've said to you, Jesus said,

13:01 is true because for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Now that's the substance of what Jesus said. But you say, Pastor Martin, no, I haven't explained. But I've tried to just open up briefly what those words would have conveyed if you were sitting there when Jesus spoke them.

The Weight and Seriousness of Jesus' Words: Spiritual Death Without Christ

13:26 Now before we move on in the third place to consider the basic meaning of these words, I trust something is happening in your own mind and heart. If it isn't, either I have failed to open up the seriousness of the issue or you failed to receive the right impression of the issues. If Jesus' truth includes incarnate, speaks only the words of His Father, speaks only truth, do you see the implication for you sitting here today? If you do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, you have no life, according to Jesus.

14:05 Yes, but, no, no, stop, back off. It's not a matter of what it means. Do you feel the weight of His words? You are spiritually dead and you will remain dead through life and in death.

14:17 You will remain dead in death. And know the pangs of the second death unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood. You have no life in you. What is the heart?

14:29 What is the very soul? What are the central issues to a right understanding of these words? 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 yourself. Don't you want to understand what those words mean?

14:47 I'm looking. I'm looking out in some people who are dead. Utterly dead. You have no life in you.

14:55 Why? Because you've never once for all eaten of His flesh nor drunk of His blood. There are others who profess that once for all you've eaten of His flesh and drunk of His blood, but you're not continually masticating His flesh. You do not feed upon His flesh.

15:14 In the ongoing living dynamics of persevering faith, you are not drinking of His blood and according to Jesus, any hope you have of everlasting life and a blessed resurrection is ill-founded. Dear people, may God help us to come with a heart that says, Oh God, teach me what those vital words mean. It is a matter of life and death to my soul. My friend, you have no life unless you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood.

15:47 And that means that you, come to embrace from the heart, it is Christ crucified who is the life and the nourishment of the soul. Not Christ merely sent down out of heaven. Christ as sealed by the Father, verse 27. Christ as manifesting grace and power in the feeding of the multitudes.

16:12 But Christ in His flesh given for the life of the world. You see? You see now why He says, unless you have eaten once for all my flesh and drunk my blood, no life in you, all life is in a crucified Savior. Outside of Him, there is nothing but death, present death, continued death, and the horrible specter of eternal death in the lake of fire.

16:45 You want to put forth endeavor to do what God requires of you and that which will please God? Believe unto one, whom He sent. You don't need to know a word of Greek. You hardly need to know much of the English language.

16:57 Believe on Him whom He has sent. That's what God requires of you.

The Parallel Between Believing and Eating/Drinking Christ

17:05 The Lord doesn't stop there. Verse 35. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that comes to Me shall not hunger, and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.

17:19 How is soul hunger met? And soul thirst met by believing upon this One who stands before them. Verse 40. This is the will of My Father that everyone that beholds the Son and believes on Him, now note carefully, should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.

17:43 What is promised to all who believe on Him? Two things. They possess eternal life, they will be raised at the last day. Now, turn over to verse 53.

17:54 And I think the picture will begin to come into sharp focus. Truly, truly, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have not life in yourself. He that is continually munching, feeding upon My flesh, and continually drinking My blood, what two things are said to be true of Him? He possesses eternal life, He has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.

18:21 You see the strict parallel? Between verse 54 and the verse that we looked at, verse 40? Who has eternal life according to verse 40? The one who believes on Him.

18:33 He has eternal life. Who will be raised up at the last day? The one who believes on Him. What is it to believe on Him?

18:40 Unless you come up with Jesus teaching two ways of salvation. Some people will get saved by eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood, whatever it means. Other people just get saved by trusting in Christ. Take your pick.

18:53 If you want to plumb some mystical heights and depths and get involved in great convoluted mysteries, you go the former way. But for me, no. Jesus is not teaching two ways of salvation, only one. And when He promises precisely the same two things to two different activities, obviously the activities are one.

19:14 What is it to eat His flesh? What is it to drink His blood? It is simply to believe. On the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Analogy of Manna: How to 'Eat' and 'Drink' Christ

19:25 It is to do what the ancient Israelites did with the manna. There they were, in their destitute state, with no means of setting up an agricultural economy as wanderers in the wilderness. And in their unbelief, they want to go back to Egypt, kill Moses and change the thing. But God mercifully, He provides manna.

19:48 They are destitute. They are utterly unable to meet their own need. What does God do? In His love and pity, He sends bread out of heaven.

19:59 Now what did they have to do? Did God say, you've got to go out every morning and you've got to go through 15 different mantras? And then I'll send down a little bit of manna? Do 30 more?

20:09 I'll send down a second piece of manna? Do 50 Hail Marys and 75 Our Fathers and I'll give you a dozen manna? What did they have to do to get the manna? Nothing.

20:20 God sent the bread out of heaven. Remember? Remember how many times it's emphasized in the passage? This is the bread.

20:27 Yes, it came out of heaven. But it was pointing to a greater reality. What did they have to do? Just go out and gather it.

20:35 They couldn't stand around in circles and jump for glee and say, oh boy, manna this morning. Now they make your mouth watered down. It'll look good. They'd starve and perish.

20:44 They had to reach out with the hand. Take it. Put it into the mouth. Chew it.

20:50 Let the saliva mix with it. Swallow it. Swallow it. Swallow it.

20:53 Swallow it. Swallow it. Swallow it. Swallow it.

20:53 The gastric juices work upon it. And what did it do? It sustained life through the wilderness.

21:01 Now Jesus said, you want to know what it is to believe on me? You do with me, my person, as the God-man, crucified for sinners, do with me what they did with the manna. Behold me as God's gift out of heaven to destitute humanity. Jesus said, eat this bread and you'll live forever.

21:25 Eat of me. You'll live now and you will never cease to live. And I will raise you at the last day. Again, verse 47.

21:37 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes has eternal life. Dear people, can God make it any simpler or plainer? It is Christ received, and listen carefully, and fed upon by faith who is the life, and nourishment of the soul. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in yourself.

Christ as the Unique, Crucified, and Offered Bread of Life

22:07 And I trust God has helped some perhaps for the first time to see how simple the gospel is.

22:16 Do you see? It is Christ himself who is food and nourishment. Four times, I am the bread, I am the bread, I am the bread, I am the bread sent down from heaven. It is Christ, in the uniqueness of his person.

22:31 I am come out of heaven, out of heaven, out of heaven. Don't think of me as just another mortal. Yes, he is one of us in the reality of incarnation, but he was wholly other than us from eternity, the eternal word made flesh.

22:49 Do you see that it's Christ crucified who is the true food and nourishment of the soul? And are you one who having eaten and drunk is yet eating and eating? And drinking of Christ? If you have never, never known what it is to eat and drink of him, he stands before you this morning in the only way he will stand before you until the second coming.

23:18 He stands before you in the word and by the spirit and offers himself to you as the bread of life.

23:29 Do you feel the solemnity of that? I do as I preach. I will not see Christ in any way. I will not see him in any other way until the second coming other than the way I see him in the word by the spirit.

23:43 You will never know Christ in the graciousness of his invitation of life in any other way than you know him this morning. Don't wait for some overwhelming feeling and goosebumps up and down your spine or anything else. Christ says, I am the bread of life. He that comes to me, he that eats of me shall have life.

24:12 Except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life. Will you go on trying to find life on the junk food of this world? Will you go on trying to find life in the sand and marbles and gravel of the lust of the flesh? In the pursuits of that which dishonors God?

24:36 When the one who came out of heaven stands before you and says, I am the bread of life and I am bread to be eaten and my blood is that drink which gives nourishment to the soul. May God grant that these precious words of the Lord Jesus will not cause us to murmur nor cause us to stumble let alone never cause us to turn back. But may we say, Lord Jesus, I do eat of your flesh. I do drink of your blood.

25:41 I do drink of your blood. I do drink of your blood. I do drink of your blood. I do drink of your blood.

25:47 I do drink of your blood. I do drink of your blood. The Reformed Baptist Church of Riverside gathers at 10.45 a.m.

25:52 and 6 p.m. each Lord's Day. Our address is 3340 Iowa Avenue.

25:59 We are located only 100 yards from the 60 freeway beside the Blaine Street exit. Our building is on the corner of Blaine and Iowa. You may have a question regarding the message you have just heard or, you may want to receive the free booklet we offer. If so, please call us now at 909-243-9026.

26:20 That number once again is 909-243-9026. Please feel free to call and do plan to visit us this Lord's Day when the Scriptures of God will be opened and explained. On behalf of the Reformed Baptist Church of Riverside, let me thank you for listening today. We also hope that if God spares you, you will tune in again next week at this same time for another edition of God's Word to Our Nation.