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to consider a passage from John chapter 6. This is going to be more of an overview of this passage,
otherwise we would be here for a very long time. It’s a somewhat lengthy reading, but it’s John
chapter 6 verses 22 through 59, and you’ll find that beginning on page 1059 of your Pew Bibles.
And as you’re turning there, and just to set this passage in its context, our Lord Jesus has
performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, and then his disciples had gone across the lake,
and Jesus walked on the water to rejoin his disciples. And that brings us to our passage
for this evening. So let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God, John 6 beginning at verse 22.
On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been
only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that
his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had
eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there,
nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus.
When they found 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 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. Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing
the works 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 the manna in the wilderness as it is written, he gave them bread
from heaven to eat. Jesus then 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. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet
do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never
cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me,
but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the
and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
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? How does he now
say I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one
can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned
from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has
seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from
heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the
world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his
flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood
is true drink. Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on me, he will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.
Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught
at Capernaum. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God
endures forever. Please join me as we pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word.
O heavenly father, we would pray that by your spirit you would feed our souls this evening
through Jesus, the living bread. We would pray, O Lord, that by your spirit and through the word
that you would engender and work within us a true and lively faith that we might indeed, with the
mouth of faith so to speak, embrace, receive, and take to ourselves Jesus Christ, our Savior,
the true and living bread. Be with us now, Lord. Bless the proclamation of your word
for your glory and for our edification. We pray in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said amen.
You may be seated.
You will not be surprised to learn that the title of my message this evening is I Am the Bread of Life,
and the key words that you could be listening for in my sermon this evening, I’d encourage
the children to keep track of these words, the words manna, bread, and everlasting life.
Well friends, it was an utterly astounding miracle. The crowds were massive and hungry.
Just the men alone were 5,000 in number. This was at the height of our Lord’s popularity among the
masses. For a wandering rabbi, he had a huge following at this particular time in his earthly
ministry. As Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw the great multitude approaching him, he knew that they
were hungry. He knew they required sustenance, nourishment, and so he asked his disciple Philip
a question which probably sounded either shocking or ludicrous to Philip. He asks him in verse 5,
where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? I can almost picture Philip kind of
doing a double take in his mind and thinking, say what Lord? What are you asking me to do?
Philip informs our Lord that 200 denarii, that’s about eight months worth of wages,
would not be sufficient to feed such a large crowd. Jesus’ disciple Andrew, who was Simon
Peter’s brother, pointed out a lad who had five barley loaves and two fish, but then he asks a
realistic question. He says, well what are they for so many as it records in verse 9. Now the
responses that Philip and Andrew gave to our Lord’s questions reveal their pessimism and it
also reveals their weakness of faith. After all, hadn’t they witnessed our Lord Jesus turn water
into wine? Hadn’t they seen our Lord perform many other amazing miracles right before their eyes?
From their own experience with the Lord Jesus, they should have realized that he had this
situation completely under his control. But in spite of their weak faith, the weak faith of
his disciples, Jesus has them make the people sit down, then Jesus does something astonishing.
He takes the loaves, he gives thanks to God, and by an act of supernatural divine creation,
the Lord Jesus Christ turned these five barley loaves and these two fish into enough food
to feed more than 5,000 people. In fact, Jesus miraculously produced so much food,
such a feast that after the people had their fill, the Lord ordered his disciples to gather
up the fragments that were left over. You might expect there to be a few crumbs here or there,
or maybe a few pieces of fish here or there. But no, no, they gathered up enough fragments
to fill 12 baskets. That would be enough for all 12 of his disciples to have food going forward
in their journey. Well, friends, what an astounding miracle indeed. But what is the
significance of this miracle? Well, since this is the only miracle of Jesus other than the
resurrection itself that is recorded in all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
it is arguably the most significant miracle that our Lord performed during his earthly ministry,
and therefore it deserves special consideration. And our Lord’s commentary on the significance
of this act also requires and calls forth special consideration.
Now, the wonder of what had occurred did not escape the notice of the crowds that partook of
the food which Jesus had provided. Verse 14 says, When the people saw the sign that he had done,
they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. So impressed were they
by this miraculous sign, this act of amazing, instantaneous divine creation that our Lord
performed on these five loaves and two fish, multiplying them to the extent where they could
feed over 5,000 people, that the crowds draw the inference, Well, this is the prophet.
This is very significant. Now, notice they did not say this is indeed a prophet. There’s a direct
object here. Dear ones, they call Jesus not a prophet, but the prophet, the prophet with a
capital P. And by that, they almost certainly mean the prophet which Moses predicted
back in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15. Just to read that prediction, that prophecy
very quickly, it says in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15, Moses the prophet says to the people,
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you,
from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. That is a messianic prophecy.
This prophet that was predicted by Moses was none other than the Messiah prophet, the long expected
prophet who would be even greater than the prophet Moses. This prophet would be the anointed one,
the Christ, the Messiah, the one who would reign as God’s chosen and anointed King, the one who
would deliver his people from their enemies. And that is why we’re told in John chapter 6 verse 15
that the crowds wanted to seize Jesus and make him King. He’s the prophet. He’s the promised Messiah.
Let’s grab him. Let’s make him our King, right? They had correctly inferred from this miraculous
sign that the Lord Jesus was indeed the great prophet predicted by Moses. And they were also
correct in coming to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed the great, that Jesus deserved to be
King as well. He was prophet, but he was also King. Why then did Jesus leave them? Well, verse 15
explains it if you look at our passage for today at verse 15. It says this, perceiving then that
they were about to come and take him by force to make him King, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain
by himself. Why on earth did he do that? Why would he do that? After all, here was his golden
opportunity for fame and glory. Here was his opportunity to advance himself politically
and to lead a revolution to free God’s people from the tyranny of Roman rule. Why did he give
up this opportunity? Why was he not flattered and honored at the desire of the masses to crown him
as their King? Well, the answers to these questions unfold before our eyes as we read on
in our text for this Lord’s Day evening. So friends, here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
this miracle working man who has just fed over 5,000 people at once. What is the significance of
this sign for the church today, for you and me today? Well, first of all, I want you to
notice that through this text of Holy Scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that we are to
labor for the food which endures to everlasting life. This is the first point in your sermon outline.
We are to labor for the food which endures to everlasting life. Now let me briefly recap again
what has happened from verse 15 through the beginning of our passage for today up to verse
26. Again, Jesus has fed the 5,000 and the disciples go away to the other side. Jesus joins them by
walking on the water and it says in verse 22, on the next day the crowd that remained on the other
side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat
and with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias
came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So again,
there’s a theme of nourishment, there’s a theme of food going on here. They’d been fed, they had
partaken of this feast that the Lord Jesus had supplied them with and they were eager to follow
Jesus and probably to get, again as we learn, to get more food. And it says in verse 24, it says,
so when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the
boats and went to Capernaum. And what are they doing? They’re seeking Jesus. But why are they
seeking Jesus? Well, we’ll learn why very quickly. It says in verse 25, when they found him on the
other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? How’d you get here?
They knew that that his disciples had gone across, but Jesus hadn’t, so how did he get there? They
didn’t know about his walking on the water. They’re kind of scratching their heads and notice they
call him Rabbi. They address him with a term of respect, but Jesus goes right to the heart
of their motives here. He says, it says in verse 26, Jesus answered them,
truly, truly, amen, amen, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me,
not because you saw signs, not because in other words, you’ve come to correct conclusions about
the significance of this sign, but because you ate your fill of loaves. And that’s where he,
in a sense, admonishes, even rebukes and corrects them. He says, do not work for the food that
perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life. Now, as we learned on this morning
in my sermon from the Gospel of Luke, and we see this reflected in our passage for this evening as
well, the Jews of our Lord’s time were sadly seeking a Messiah who would be a political Messiah,
an earthly king of military might, who would guarantee their independent political sovereignty
and their material prosperity. In other words, most of God’s people, most of our Lord’s
contemporaries in his time had unbiblical notions about what the scriptures teach about the Messiah.
They had misread and misinterpreted their own scriptures and what their own scriptures
teach about the promised Messiah. Jesus did not honor their desire to make him king
because he was not the kind of king and Messiah that they were looking for. They had not perceived
the full significance of this miraculous sign of the feeding of the 5,000 and the fact that this
sign pointed to Jesus as the bread of life, the bread of life that is much more significant than
the manna that God provided for his people in Old Testament times. That manna was a pointer to
something greater than itself. It was a pointer, a supernatural pointer to the greater bread,
the bread that comes down from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, our Lord’s contemporaries
had not realized that Jesus came not to save the Jews from the political oppression of the Romans,
but to save his people from their sins. They did not realize that the Messiah would not provide
them with merely physical food and merely material prosperity, but he would provide them with the
spiritual food that endures to everlasting life, the food that satisfies permanently, eternally.
You know, friends, and I again mentioned this this morning as well, but I will again mention
it that there are some disturbing parallels between the attitude of the Jews of our Lord’s
day toward the Messiah on the one hand, and the attitude of many today, including many
professing Christians. For example, some professing Christians, whether they be of liberal or
conservative theological leanings, many Christians basically look to the government as a substitute
Messiah, and they think that, well, the job of the church is to make sure that the right person
gets put into political office. Others in the prosperity gospel movement see Jesus as a heavenly
mascot or a life coach who exists to bless them with good health and material blessings. However,
this attitude manifests itself. Many today have stopped believing in either the reality
or the relevance of a life in the hereafter, and so they see no need to seek eternal salvation.
But as I’ve said before, with respect to this present life, we’re all going to be dead a lot
longer than we are alive. Eternal life matters ultimately. The things of this life are significant,
but the things of eternity are of ultimate eternal significance, and yet many professing
Christians today and others are looking for a Savior who’s going to meet their desires,
their needs for this present age, and that is so misguided, my friends. Many set their minds on
earthly temporal things. Their mindset is not all that different from those Jews of Jesus’ day
who were primarily concerned to find a political military Messiah who would bless them with
political power, cultural influence, and material prosperity. If we were to search our hearts this
evening, maybe we would find this kind of attitude lodging within our own souls as well. And so,
by way of application, I want us to consider first of all, friends, that this passage is a call for
us to get our priorities straight. After all, you can have a full stomach but an empty soul.
You can have a roof over your head but be lacking in the assurance of a heavenly home.
You can have great material blessings but be lacking in the greatest blessing of all,
namely the blessing of eternal salvation in Jesus. What are your priorities this evening?
What or who, I should say, are you living for? And so, brothers and sisters, don’t make material
possessions and earthly things the ultimate priorities in your life. Yes, we need this stuff,
and so it’s legitimate to pray as we do in the Lord’s Prayer. Give us this day our daily bread.
The Lord knows that we need our daily bread. We need things like food and clothing and shelter.
We also are social creatures. We need social connection, family, friends, and loved ones,
and so forth. The Lord understands this, but don’t look to these things as the ultimate
priorities in your life. Don’t imagine that these things will bring lasting satisfaction to your
soul. The manna that God provided for his people in Old Testament times, the manna provided them
with daily sustenance, but then they would get hungry again. It was not a permanent satisfaction
to their physical hunger. My friends, let us not look to these things as the source of true
and lasting satisfaction. Indeed, to look upon these earthly temporal things as the source of
true and lasting satisfaction is like settling for stale Wonder Bread when you could have a
10-course gourmet feast. It’s like settling for a McDonald’s hamburger. Nothing against
McDonald’s hamburgers, but it’s like settling for that when you could enjoy a tender, juicy steak,
or like settling for a Twinkie when you could have some luscious chocolate mousse. Getting hungry yet?
Though the things of this earth are good gifts of our loving and generous creator, gifts that
we can enjoy and ought to enjoy with thankfulness in our hearts, nevertheless, though they may be
good and necessary in their place, they can never satisfy the starving soul. No, my friends,
you must seek after that spiritual food which endures to everlasting life. So where do we find
this spiritual food which endures to everlasting life? Well, this question leads me to my next
and final main point. Jesus Christ is the true and only source of everlasting life and spiritual
nourishment. Jesus Christ is the true and only source of everlasting life and spiritual nourishment.
Again, let me draw your attention to our text, to verse 28. Jesus says to the people
that, you know, labor for the food which endures to eternal life, verse 27, and then he says,
the Son of Man is going to give this food to you for on him, God the Father has set his seal.
How do they respond? Then they said to him, verse 28, what must we do to be doing the works of God?
We kind of, we see there in that question, sort of a works righteousness mindset even.
And so how does Jesus answer them? Well, they go on to say, he goes on to say, this is the work of
God, the quote work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Put your faith and trust
in the one the Father has sent. And how do they respond to that? Rather ironically, they say in
verse 30, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What sign do you do? Didn’t they
just witness the sign and benefit from the sign of the multiplying of the loaves and the fishes?
Have they not heard about all of the mighty signs and miracles that our Lord had performed?
Clearly, they were not seeking him in good faith. They wanted to kind of get more from him.
What sign will you do? And then they mentioned the manna. Our fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them,
truly, truly, when he repeats the word truly, he says, you really need to pay attention to this.
Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father who
gives you the true bread from heaven. And he’s not talking about the manna, the physical manna that
the people received. That was but a sign and a pointer to the ultimate sustenance that the Lord
would send from heaven, namely Jesus himself. For Jesus explains in verse 33, for the bread of God
is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Now that sounds great. So they say
in verse 34, sir, give us this bread always. Are they really interested in the bread though,
that he’s talking about? Jesus goes on to say, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall
not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst and so forth. Again, God provided Israel
with manna in the wilderness, but God provides something greater in Jesus Christ, for Jesus
is the bread of life. And to feast upon Jesus by faith is to feast upon a soul nourishment that
lasts for eternity, life everlasting. And in verse 35, Jesus reveals himself to be the bread of life
which God the Father has sent from heaven to feed our souls. Now Christ feeds us with food that is
even more significant than the manna. And you say, well, how do we know that that’s the case? How do
we know that to be the case? We know that because, first of all, because of who Jesus is. How is Jesus
repeatedly identified in this passage? Well, he is identified as the one who came down from heaven.
He came from the Father. This is a description of his incarnation. When Christ, the eternal Son of
God, took upon himself our humanity, he added to himself our human nature. We see this language
of him coming down from heaven. We see that, for example, in verse 38. Jesus says,
for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And then
skip down to verse 41. So the Jews grumbled about him. And when John uses the term Jews, he’s
speaking of the unbelieving Jews. Not all of the Jews were unbelieving, but this particular crowd
was. So the Jews grumbled about him. Why? Because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.
And then again, in verse 42, we read these words. Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? They get his
claim. They’re offended by his claim. And then skip down to verse 50. I’m just showing you that
this theme is woven throughout the passage here. In verse 50, the Lord, it says this. This is the
bread that does what? That comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. Also verse
51. I am the living bread that what? Came down from heaven. And then finally verse 58, if you
skip ahead to verse 58, this is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the
fathers ate, not like the manna, but and they ate that bread and they still died. Whoever feeds on
this bread will live forever. Jesus is God incarnate. He has demonstrated it and displayed this
fact by his miraculous signs, including the multiplying of the loaves and the fishes. So
we can know that his word is truth. We can know that he is able to give us this living bread,
for he is the bread of life. But he is also the son of man upon whom God the father has set his
seal. As we read in verse 27, I know we’re skipping around a little bit, but again, I want to show
these themes to you. Jesus says in verse 27, 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. In this verse, Jesus calls himself the son of man, which is a messianic title
taken from the book of the prophet Daniel. So he’s speaking of himself as the Messiah. And he says,
God the father has set his seal upon me. That’s what he says. One commentator points out that the
term the seal is the mark of authentication. He who holds the seal acts on behalf of the owner
of the seal. What Jesus does and what he says are the deeds and words of God. It should be noted that
it is upon Jesus as son of man that the seal is set. So he is God incarnate. He is the son of man
upon whom God the father has set his seal. He is also revealed here as the omniscient one,
the omniscient searcher of hearts. This is implied in verses 15 and 26. Back in verse 15, it says,
perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by itself, by himself. This implies Jesus has special
supernatural knowledge. Indeed, he is omniscient with respect to his divine nature. We see that
also in verse 26, where it 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. You’re seeking me
for material benefits, earthly benefits. You’re not seeking me because you’ve understood the
significance of these signs that I’ve performed is essentially what he is saying to them. But
notice again, Jesus knows their motives. Think about it. Jesus knows your motives and my motives.
He searches our hearts, but we can also rely on him to feed our souls with himself because he is,
in fact, the true bread come down from heaven, the bread of life, the heavenly manna.
Dear listeners, the only way that we can enjoy the everlasting life that is spoken of in this
passage is by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ by faith into our souls. Just as you take food into
your body, physical food through your mouth, and take it into yourself and you digest it, so with
the mouth of faith, if you will, by faith, you embrace Christ, you embrace him as Lord, you trust
in his broken body, his shed blood, his atonement to pay the penalty for your sin. You receive and
rest upon him and him alone for salvation from sin, for he is the heavenly manna given by God to
fill our starving souls. Jesus even goes on to use the shocking metaphor of eating his flesh and
drinking his blood, which would especially be offensive to a Jewish audience.
He uses this illustration of eating his flesh and drinking his blood as a picture of what it means
to come to him and to believe in him for salvation. Again, this is not speaking of the Lord’s Supper
as such. Jesus had not at this point in his ministry, he had not ordained the Lord’s Supper
as of yet, but nevertheless, the symbolism that is of the Lord’s Supper points us to the truth that
Jesus is indeed the bread of life and he has given his body and blood for the life of the world.
Oh dear sinner, believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, the bread of life,
which has come down from heaven. Receive and rest upon him and he will feed your soul
now and forevermore. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you
that Christ gave himself for our redemption. We thank you that Christ is indeed the bread of life,
the living bread. We ask that you would give us the grace to labor for that food which endures
to life everlasting. May we receive and rest upon Christ this evening. We pray that you would
bless us Lord now as we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper together and we pray that through
this sacramental feast by faith and through your Holy Spirit, we might feed upon Christ by faith
and receive once again afresh the benefits of his broken body and his precious shed blood. We pray
these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we respond to what we’ve
heard from God’s Word and also prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper together, let’s rise and