Sunday's Message: I AM - Jesus in Seven Words (“I am the bread that gives life!” (John 6:35, 41-51))

In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes seven statements beginning with the words I am. Each of these “I am” proclamations furthers our understanding of Jesus’ ministry in the world. They also link Jesus to the Old Testament revelation of God. 

In the Old Testament, God revealed His name to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). Thus, in Judaism, “I AM” is unquestionably understood as a name for God. Whenever Jesus made an “I am” statement in which He claimed attributes of deity, He was identifying Himself as God. 

During seven messages, we’ll consider the following “I am” statements found in John’s gospel:

• June 12 – “I am the bread that gives life!” (John 6:35, 41-51)
• June 19 – “I am the light for the world!” (John 8:12-20)
• June 26 – “I am the gate for the sheep.” (John 10:1-10)
• July 3 – “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11-18
• July 10 – “I am the one who raises the dead to life!” (John 11:1-44)
• July 17 – “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” (John 14:1-14)
• July 24 – “I am the true vine.” (John 15:1-8)

In this first message, we consider the statement, “I am the bread that gives life!” The sermon text and podcast is below:

John 6:35, 41-51

Jesus replied:

I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty.

The people started grumbling because Jesus had said he was the bread that had come down from heaven. They were asking each other, “Isn't he Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father and mother? How can he say that he has come down from heaven?”

Jesus told them:

Stop grumbling! No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day. One of the prophets wrote, “God will teach all of them.” And so everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him will come to me.

The only one who has seen the Father is the one who has come from him. No one else has ever seen the Father. I tell you for certain that everyone who has faith in me has eternal life.

I am the bread that gives life! Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, and later they died. But the bread from heaven has come down, so that no one who eats it will ever die. I am that bread from heaven! Everyone who eats it will live forever. My flesh is the life-giving bread I give to the people of this world.

I am the bread that gives life! 

For the last couple of months, the Wednesday morning Bible study has been looking at the Gospel of John. Last week, we finished up chapter eight. And I’ll tell you, as y’all who’ve come to these studies already know, John is an interesting book on a lot of levels. I mean, while Matthew, Mark and Luke seem pretty similar, John, well he’s marching to the beat of his own drum, with a lot of his content and even his writing style really different from the other three. And one of things that’s unique in John is that seven times, Jesus says “I AM,” in Greek, ἐγώ εἰμι, and then follows it with some symbol, which he then explains. And I’ll tell you, most of these images we’ve heard before. For example, according to John, Jesus said “I am the light for the world!” [John 8:12b, CEV] and “I am the good shepherd” [John 10:11a, CEV] and “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” [John 14:6a, CEV] Now, these are what we call “I AM” statements, and each one teaches us a little bit about who Jesus is and why he’s important.

And since this is what we’ve been talking about on Wednesday mornings, I thought it might be a good idea to spend some time this summer looking at each of these statements, beginning with the first one: “I am the bread that gives life” [John 6:35b, CEV] or, as written in some other translations, “I am the bread of life.” [John 6:35b, NRSV] Now that’s going to be our focus this morning. And you know, we’re going to talk about it by answering three questions. First, what did Jesus mean when he said it? And then second, how might we receive this bread? And then third, why is this “bread” important for us? Now this is what we’ll be doing this morning.

And so, let’s look at the first question, what did Jesus mean when he said, “I am the bread that gives life!” [John 6:35b, CEV]? I mean, what’s the relationship between the image, bread, and the person, Jesus? In other words, what did he have in mind, when “Jesus replied: I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty”? [John 6:35, CEV]

Now, to me, that’s an excellent question.

And I think we can start to figure out the answer when we consider some of the stuff that happened right before he made that statement. You see, right at the beginning of chapter six, John wrote about how Jesus fed a crowd of five thousand with just five loaves and two small fish. According to John, “Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat.” [John 6:11, CEV] Now that’s what happened. And it must have had a pretty powerful impact on the crowd, because a little bit later, they followed Jesus and his disciples all the way to the other side of the lake. But it wasn’t because they believed in him. No, evidently it was because they wanted some more free bread, something that Jesus understood when he said, “I tell you for certain that you are not looking for me because you saw the miracles, but because you ate all the food you wanted. Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so.” [John 6:26b-27, CEV] You see, Jesus understood their motivation. And I’ll tell you, if there was any question about what they really wanted, it didn’t take long for that to become crystal clear. According to John,

They replied, “What miracle will you work, so that we can have faith in you? What will you do? For example, when our ancestors were in the desert, they were given manna to eat. It happened just as the Scriptures say, ‘God gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” [John 6:30-31, CEV]

Now I don’t know about y’all, but I love this. As a matter of fact, it sounds a little like something we might say: “Jesus, what miracle can you do so we’ll believe in you? Let’s see. I know! You can give us more bread to eat, just like Moses did in the wilderness. Bread for belief.” What a deal! Now that’s what they’re saying. And for his part, Jesus was also crystal clear that he wasn’t talking about the kind of food they wanted. I mean, “Jesus then told them, ‘I tell you for certain that Moses wasn’t the one who gave you bread from heaven. My Father is the one who gives you the true bread from heaven. And the bread that God gives is the one who came down from heaven to give life to the world.’” [John 6:30b-34, CEV] Now that’s what Jesus said. But the people, man, they just couldn’t seem to let go of the possibility of another free meal, because right after Jesus told them they had really misunderstood what God had done and is doing, “the people said, ‘Sir, give us this bread and don't ever stop!’” [John 6:30-34, CEV]

And I’ll tell you, it was this demand that moved Jesus to say, “I am the bread that gives life” [John 6:35b, CEV] In other words, he told them that they weren’t going to find the kind of life he was offering in anything that could be formed into loaves. In fact, their ancestors didn’t find it in what Moses offered the people in the wilderness. No, Jesus told them that, in spite of what they wanted or even expected, he was now the source of this life, new life, real life, eternal life. You see, when he said, “I am the bread that gives life” [John 6:35b, CEV], I believe he was telling the people back in the day and brothers and sisters, I think he’s telling us that he is now the source of a new kind of life. In my opinion, that’s what I think he meant.

And you know, this really leads to the second question, doesn’t it: How might we receive this “bread”? In other words, since it’s really not like anything you can carry around in a basket or collect like manna on the ground, how can we consume this new and different kind of bread so that we can experience this life? And again, I think that’s a great question, because just having bread that gives life ain’t worth a bucket of spit, if we can eat it, right? 

And I’ll tell you, that’s why I think what Jesus told the people is so important. Just listen:

Jesus told them:

Stop grumbling! No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day. One of the prophets wrote, “God will teach all of them.” And so everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him will come to me. [John 6:43-45, CEV]

Now that’s what he said, and I believe we can break that down into two parts: one involving God and the other involving us. You see, I think Jesus was really clear that this bread and the life it brings, well, ultimately, it’s not about us, and I’m talking about any of the words we might say or works we might do or promises we might make. You see, it’s not about us. Instead, it’s about God. It’s about God drawing us to the bread of life. In fact, it’s like what Jesus is going to say a little bit later in the gospel, “You did not choose me. I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then my Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name.” [John 15:16, CEV] Man, it’s about what God has done and is doing. But having said that, this doesn’t mean we’re supposed to be passive, you know, just waiting around for God to move us, because, according to Jesus, that’s exactly what he’s already done. Just think about what he said; right now, God is teaching us. He’s teaching us through his Word, and he’s teaching us through his community. In other words, right now, he’s drawing us in, and he’s doing that through sermons and lessons, through reading and conversing, through words spoken and lives lived. That’s how he’s making us come to the bread. And that’s why Jesus said, “And so everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him will come to me.” [John 6:45, CEV] And I’ll tell you why this is important. I think it’s the listening and learning and living that leads us to believe: to believe that Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be and to believe that he came to bring blessings to his people and provide the place where they could meet the Father and to believe that, when we look at Jesus, we encounter God. You see, thanks to what God has done and is doing, we can believe. We can have faith. And as Jesus said, “I tell you for certain that everyone who has faith in me has eternal life.” [John 6:47, CEV] You see, this is exactly how we can receive this wonderful bread that gives life.

And with all that in mind, we’re left with question number three: why is this “bread” important for us? I mean, why is it important for us to understand that Jesus is the source of a new and a different kind of life? And why is it important for us to respond to God by trusting in his Son? Well, again I think Jesus was clear. In the passage we read, he said, 

I am the bread that gives life! Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, and later they died. But the bread from heaven has come down, so that no one who eats it will ever die. I am that bread from heaven! Everyone who eats it will live forever. My flesh is the life-giving bread I give to the people of this world. [John 6:48-51, CEV]

Now that’s what he said. And just think about what it means. Even if we were able to eat manna in the desert like the children of Israel, we’re still going to die, because they died. And the reason: well, the kind of life offered through Christ isn’t in the manna. And it doesn’t come from people who promise thornless roses and sacrifice-free blessings. And it can’t be found in political religions or religious politics or frankly, anything else our world can provide. None of those things last. No, the life offered by Christ is different, because it’s eternal. And what’s eternal life? Just listen to what Jesus said in the prayer he prayed right before his arrest and crucifixion:

Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. And you gave him power over all people, so he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. [John 17:1b-3, CEV]

Now, that’s eternal life, to know God and to know the one whom God sent. In other words, it’s sort of like getting a little glimpse of eternity. You see, it’s simply having a living and a growing relationship with God right now, one that can offer comfort and hope even in the face of death itself. That’s what we’ve been given by God himself. But let’s get real, we can only understand and appreciate it, when we make the decision to trust that it’s real and to believe that Jesus Christ truly is the bread that gives life. And brothers and sisters, that’s why I think this bread is so  important for us.

Now, in the next six weeks, we’ll look at the other “I am” statements made by Jesus in the Gospel of John. And each time, he’ll use a different image, because each time, he’ll be making a different point about who he is and why he came. And that’s certainly the case in what we talked about this morning. I mean, we know that Jesus is the source of life, one that we can claim when we respond to God’s call and simply believe and one that will enable us to enter a new and a living relationship with God. And for me, that’s the what and the how and the why behind the statement, “I am the bread that gives life.” [John 6:35b, CEV]