Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Well, this morning we are in John chapter 6.
The title of my message is this. It is that Christ is the bread
of life. Now this is different than some
of the other messages that we have looked at thus far because
we have looked at Christ from a multitude of angles, looking at
his characteristics. But we haven't exactly called
Jesus Christ anything close to bread in our series here thus
far. But these are not my words here
that I'm giving you this morning.
I am not trying to make a clever analogy and trying to call Jesus
Christ the bread of life, life. Rather this is Christ's own
words for us to help us understand exactly who he is and
that he is the sustainer of life, both physically and
spiritually. All life is found in Jesus
Christ. And so I wanted to get right to
it this morning. John chapter 6.
Why don't you go ahead and stand with me, if you will.
John chapter 6 and we're going to read one verse say, pastor,
that going to be it's going to be a short message.
And the answer is, Don't you wish all right?
Verse #35 says this. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life, He that come to me shall never hunger, and he
that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Why don't you read that with me again out loud?
Verse #35 And it says, And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Why don't you be seated and let's pray together?
Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this morning and we thank
you for all we've received. Well, Lord, we do come to the
place where it is the Word of God that needs to be brought
forth. And I pray that it is done so
that it's not myself or anything that I do this morning that
causes hearts and minds to be able to be changed.
Or if that's the case, it'll be very short lived.
But rather I pray to your Holy Spirit that illuminates the
hearts here today. If someone has never tasted of
that bread of life, may this be that day where they trust in
Christ as their Savior. For some of us who maybe have
gotten to the place where we feel a little self-sufficient in
our life, help us to remember that the bread of life isn't
just about being saved, but rather that Christ is our life
no matter what stage of life we are in.
And we ask it all in Jesus name. Amen.
You know we think of Christ being the bread of life.
It could cause a little bit of confusion at 1st and the reason
why is because for us bread is good but it's not exactly the
sustainer of life is. In fact, it seems quite the
opposite nowadays with gluten free everything, it seems like
everybody's trying to get bread out of the house.
What do people say? You pass them some bread, say,
oh, I'm watching my carbs right. You know they don't want bread
anymore. Nobody wants bread.
I'll say this, if you don't want the bread, give it to me.
All right? I'll take your bread if you
don't want it. Because I enjoy bread, but it's
not the sustainer of life as it would be maybe thought of in
other times. In fact, I remember we lived in
Tampa, FL and that's where I grew up.
And then after Bible college, we lived there for seven years.
And one of my favorite memories on Saturdays when there wasn't
anything going on, which didn't happen very often, but when
there was a Saturday where there wasn't a whole lot going on, I
remember Saturday morning, I go to a little store right around
the corner from where we live. And I'd get some Jose, Are you
ready? Some Cafe and I get some Cuban
bread. That was my favorite.
Now, not that Miami Cuban bread that you're used to, Jose.
All right, I'm talking about real Tampa Cuban bread.
It's a little bit different, but it's all good.
Amen. But they would toast it and put
butter on it and it's just, it is so unhealthy to.
So you got dairy, you got carbs, You got it all, man, I'll tell
you. I miss it.
All right. There's not much I miss about
Florida. I enjoy living in New England by
the grace of God. But I will say this, that Cuban
bread, on a Saturday morning, if I have to visit Tampa or do
business or anything like that, the first thing I do is go to a
place that will serve real pressed Cuban bread with butter.
And it is delicious. Now, I say that saying I enjoy
it. But, you know, living up here
now for over 13 years, my life has gone on just fine without
it. I mean, I like bread.
I like Cuban bread particularly. I don't know what it is about
the crunchiness of the crust, the softness of the inside, and
of course, lots of butter. But I, I can live without it.
But yet Jesus tells us here this morning that this is situation
that's different than what we're used to.
We're used to pushing the bread to the side.
It's got carbs. We're used to pushing the bread
to the side. I'm not doing gluten.
We're used to saying that bread is a side, but not the main
attraction to that which we eat. Nobody says, what's the meal
tonight? And you say?
Bread. I mean, you might, you're
struggling if that happens, if we probably all been there,
here, there, haven't we? But for the most part, we
understand that that's not the way that man lives, that we
don't live. By eating bread in that sense.
But for while for us the bread of life title may not lend
immediately understanding of what it is, but yet we
understand that to the Jews he was speaking to, they understood
exactly what he meant when He said I am the bread of life.
Our understanding might be clouded a little bit, but the
Jews were very well understanding of exactly that
which Jesus was speaking about. Now for us to truly know why
Jesus is saying verse #35 in the 1st place, it helps us to
understand what's going on in the rest of the chapter.
Now we're not going to read the rest of the chapter because it's
well, you know, over 60 verses. But if you're to go previously
from verses 1 to 14 is the very famous passage of the feeding of
the 5000. You'll remember there were 5
loaves and the fish that were there and there were 5000.
But I want to remind you that it wasn't just 5000 that were fed.
The Bible makes it clear as 5000 men that were fed.
So that would have been, there were women and children as well.
I've heard that it could have been anywhere from 12,000 to
20,000 people that were fed on that day.
Well, it doesn't matter. There wasn't enough for three
people to eat, let alone 12,000 or 20,000 or 5000.
But here's what we know, that when God took that little bit
that was offered by that little boy and blessed it, it went far
beyond that which man could expect or understand.
That's a reminder to us today. You give God the little bit that
you have and that He will stretch it far beyond that which
you can do on your own. I'm not just talking about
money. I'm not just talking about your
food. I'm talking about your life.
Give Him whatever you have and He will take you far greater
places than you could even imagine.
I'm not talking about going to some far-flung country when I
say going to greater places. I'm just saying that He will do
more with your life than you could ever do with it on your
own. And then you get to verse #15
and Jesus tells the disciples to get on the ship and to go across
the Sea of Galilee. Now, it seems like every time
these guys, they were fishermen, but every time we read about
them going over the sea of galley, something bad happens.
It's like a three hour tour. You know what I'm saying?
Some of you at a certain age know what I'm talking about, and
others have no clue what I'm talking about, but that's OK.
And they go out on the water and of course calamity strikes.
Here is the the water becomes boisterous.
And in the middle of all of this, what happens?
Jesus is walking on the water in the midst of the storm and
brings peace to them in the midst of storm.
A reminder again that Jesus doesn't always save us from the
storm, but he can bring peace to us while we're in the midst of
the storm. Amen.
And so we see that there is the bread that has been fed to the
Jews anywhere from 12 to 20,000. Then they go all the way across
the Sea of Galilee. Not a large body of water, but a
tempestuous body of water as it's shown here in our text.
But then in verse #22 it tells us that the multitudes realize
that they go back the next morning, that Jesus is gone.
And So what do they do? The word starts to get out that
the disciples had gone across, across the Sea of Galilee.
So now all of a sudden there's a Stampede.
All of these people are now trying to find their way across
the Sea of Galilee, going around the Sea of Galilee.
Whatever they can, they are trying to find Jesus.
They want to know more about him.
And I would submit to you, they also want more bread.
And so they come and they get to this place where they find Jesus
in verse #25 there's a conversation that begins to
unfold between these physically hungry people that they fed.
They were fed the day before, but now they're hungry again.
They have come to find Jesus Christ.
But Jesus is going to engage with them in a different way
than he did the day before. So go back to verse #25 just go
maybe a page over in your Bible, and let's look from verse #25
And it says, And when they had found him on the other side of
the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi meaning, Teacher, when
cometh thou hit her? And Jesus answered and said to
them, Verily, verily, I say unto.
You ye seek. Me not because you saw the
miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and we're
filled. Now stop right there.
Every time that someone asked Jesus a question, he avoids the
question because he answers the real question that's in their
hearts. It's not because he's not able
to answer the question. They say, hey Jesus, when did
you get over here? He doesn't answer that question.
He says I know why you're here. He said the reason why is
because you did eat the loaves and were filled.
You are looking for more bread. I know why you're here.
Jesus knew the heart by the way. God knows your heart this
morning. There is nothing you can conceal
from God. There's nothing you can hide
from God. Now to some that is scary
because of what's in the heart. To others that brings peace,
because God knows the troubles and the difficulties and the
struggles that you have. Now he continues in verse #27 He
says, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son
of man shall give unto you. For him God the Father sealed.
Now Jesus trying to communicate something not earthly but
heavenly. Here He says, You came for meat
meal that made you hungry. Again He says, But I've got
something that'll satisfy if you'll listen, because the Son
of Man who was sent from God is ready and willing to give it to
you. Now the Jews ask him a couple
questions, and they show their lack of spiritual understanding
and discernment with the two questions that they ask.
First is this verse #28. And they said unto him, What
shall we do, that we might see the works of God now?
I'll remind you that the they that's there goes all the way
back to what we saw come earlier in verse #22 it says the day
following when the people which stood on the other side of the
sea saw that there was none of the boat there.
Meaning these were the people that were on the other side.
These are the people that Jesus is now addressing, many of whom
had received the miraculous bread yesterday.
And now they're saying this. Well, what have you done for us
lately? What kind of work are you going
to do? Just took the loaves and the
fishes and had 12 baskets that were leftover.
I don't know about your house, but it don't take long for the
groceries that are full to be empty.
It doesn't go the other way around unless I've been to the
store and spent about $500 on five loaves and two fishes.
That's what it feels like right now.
But what do we see here? Jesus, you're asking?
What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
They don't understand what is right before them.
And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent.
He says you want to know what the real work at work here is,
if you will. It's that you need to believe in
the one who was sent from God. That's what's at work here.
This is not some kind of kind of feeding mission.
This is not Jesus giving a philanthropic help to those who
were hungry, although He did. The point of feeding their belly
was to meet the need of the heart.
By the way, any kind of ministry that we have here at Liberty
Baptist Church, we may want to meet physical needs, but the
real point is to meet spiritual needs because we could have a
food pantry. We do not, but we could have a
food pantry. That's a blessing.
But if we have the food pantry and don't meet the spiritual, we
missed the mark. Here's what we do have.
We have a back to school bash that comes every summer and we
hand out school supplies and haircuts and all kinds of stuff.
But I think this year we'll have vision checks.
We have a a group that's coming in that's going to help check
visions of the young people and all these different things.
That's all wonderful. But if we do that and never tell
them about Christ, we've missed the mark.
And so Jesus says here, you've missed what this is really all
about. It's not about the bread, He's
going to say in a minute. It's about the bread of life.
Verse #30 Here's a second question.
They said therefore and to him, What signs show us thou then
that we may see and believe thee?
What does thou work now? This is even worse than the
first. Because he is saying to them,
you need to believe on me. And they say, why should we?
What have you done? What can you do?
Now they're wanting a repeat of that which Jesus had done
before. Now understand that the prophet
often authenticated himself with a sign.
This is common in the Old Testament for the message to be
authenticated. The Jews did seek after a sign.
This is biblical that they would do such a thing, and Jesus would
often speak to them through signs to authenticate the
messenger. But Jesus has already been
authenticated. Jesus has already showed who he
is. And there are some who would say
something like this. Well, if Jesus did this in my
life, then I would believe it. Well, if Jesus would Get Me Out
of my financial situation, then I believe Jesus would heal me,
then I believe him. If Jesus would write it in the
clouds, then I believe him. And the fact of the matter is
that faith is not about what you see, but about what is unseen.
Hebrews chapter #11. And it comes to the place where
it's not about what Jesus can show you, but about what you
believe of how he's revealed himself through His word.
What more did Jesus have to do? He had taught for a extended
period of time 1st and taught of Himself.
Then he had fed them. And that still wasn't enough.
And so it says Jesus says rather verse 30, they said, therefore,
until well, we already read that verse 31, our fathers did eat
mana in the desert as it was written.
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Now stop right there. Now we're getting to this place
where the bread is important because again, to us bread is a
supplemental. To us, bread is extra.
In fact, to us bread is something that we cut out
sometimes nowadays. But now the Jews had brought up
the fact of the mana which fell in the desert.
Now, what is mana? And the answer is, what is it?
You say, well, I thought you said, what is mana?
Well, that is, what is it? The word mana in Hebrew
literally meant what is it? Because they were out there in
the desert and they needed sustenance and what took place?
God brought the mana down from heaven every day.
And the first day they looked at it, they picked it up and they
said, what is it? Mana?
I said, it's called a mana for the rest of the time.
Can you imagine that? What is it?
So every day, what do they eat? What is it?
Every day sometimes maybe you look in your house, you look at
something in the refrigerator, you say, what is it?
Now you can say it's mana, but I'll tell you it's not mana from
heaven because there's stuff growing on it.
Probably. I'm mana from heaven, all right,
but you might. Look at it, say, what is it?
But that's what they were doing. But it was the bread of it
literally was the sustenance of which they were able to eat for
40 years that God continually fed them from his heavenly ovens
every day. And the Bible says that it
tasted like honey and like coriander seed and it was
something unlike anything thing that we could even imagine that
literally from God's own hand he fed them, He did give them bread
from heaven to eat. But in verse 32, then Jesus
said, and then verily, verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. Now verse 31, when it says he
gave them bread from heaven to eat, because of the way Jesus
responds, it makes it seem like that really the Jews believe
that the he there is not God who provided the bread, but Moses
that provided the bread. That that pronoun there he needs
an antecedent meaning that what does that word stand for?
Well, the way Jesus corrects them, it seems like they think
the bread came from Moses because he corrects them.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
from heaven, but my Father giveth you that true bread from
heaven. See, they had such reverence
from Moses, but this is where the problem was.
They had such reverence for the past, but yet they had not
reverence for the God of the past.
They said they revered Moses. They said they revered the
prophets, and Jesus would expose the later time.
You say you love the prophets, but you killed the prophets.
You hated them, but now you say you love them.
And so here they are. They are ascribing to Moses that
which actually came from God himself, and they are
spiritually blinded. To what God is doing here, my
Father, giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and
giveth life into the world. Then say, said unto him, Lord,
evermore, give us this bread. They said, Jesus, if you're
offering something like that bread that came from the
heavens, then we want it now. And Jesus looks at him in verse
#35 and says, I am that bread. And Jesus say that I'm the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. By faith, those people in the
wilderness ate the bread. God provided more water
miraculously for them, and they lived.
And Jesus said, even greater than that is I the bread of
heaven, that if you believe on me, you will be sustained.
Psalm 105, verse 40 says the people asked, and He brought
them quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
Nehemiah Chapter 9, verse #15 And gave us them bread from
heaven for their hunger, brought us forth water for them out of
the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they should
go in to possess the land which they had sworn to give them.
So what happens? Jesus is responding to their
faithlessness. Jesus responded to their
questions, well, will you show us something?
Will you just do something? And then when he does something,
it's basically, well, but will you do more?
And the issue wasn't about what Jesus wasn't willing to do.
The issue was this, that they kept moving the goal posts
because really they did not want to believe in Christ.
The fact that they didn't even understand who provided them the
man in the wilderness showed them that they had a
misunderstanding of who God was. So Jesus responds, verse 32 to
35. But let me show you a couple
other places. Go down to verse #47 because we
can't cover this whole chapter. Look at verse #47 He says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. Now we'll just stop here.
For a moment. There are those who try to teach
that Jesus was just a good man, that he was a prophet, He had
some good words. That verse alone would take that
thought process and throw it out the window because either Jesus
was exactly who he said he was, or he was a charlatan.
Or he was crazy because he was literally offering people
eternal life and good men don't do that when they can't have the
means to do it. But Jesus offered it because,
well, he was who he said he was. Verse #48 I am that bread of
life in my Bible have circled I am.
Who else was the I Am? Well, he himself, the father, of
course, is the burning Bush, but God himself, Jesus being God, he
is making a clear line between himself because every time he
says that word I am, it seems like people get upset.
In fact, he said in the garden when the the the soldiers were
coming around him, they said, are you Jesus of Nazareth?
He said I am. And they all fell backwards as a
way to show that they weren't going to take Jesus.
He was going to go with them willingly because you don't trap
the IM of IMS. I am that bread of life. 49 Your father's did
eat man in the wilderness. They are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may
eat thereof and not die. I'm that living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he
shall live forever. And the bread which I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
I like bread. I like going down the White's
Bakery right around the corner here.
This isn't a sponsorship, all right.
We don't do anything like that, particularly from the pulpit.
But right around the corner on Pearl St. there's Sunday
afternoons right after church when we're finally ready to go.
Then I'll go down the White's Bakery and get a loaf of bread
and take it home to go with lunch.
And it's good. And I enjoyed, I'll tell you I
don't like buying it because I'll say, you know, I just, y'll
have a slice or two, You know, it's kind of like a Lay's potato
chip. You can't eat just one and it
doesn't last. Why?
Because. And everyone says well where did
it go? And I usually blame AJ but it's
usually me go because because it's so good.
But here's the problem in a couple hours.
You're hungry again. You.
Eat it and you're satisfied.
But the satisfaction? Does not last.
Now this is important. Jesus says if you have the
bread, the mana that was in in the earth that your father came,
that your father's ate that was from the the the bakery of
heaven, if you will, that if you ate that, if I provided you that
today you'd still be hungry and you'd still die just like your
father's did. But I'm offering something
lasting and abiding. I am that bread of life that
gives what everlasting life drop down to verse #58 This is that
bread which came down from heaven, not as your Father's did
eat manna and are dead. He that eat of this bread shall
live forever. See, this is where the
adjustment in our thinking is necessary.
Bread for us again is a wonderful additive, but it is
not necessary in the sustaining. Of life, but Jesus proclaimed
that He is the one that we partake.
We shall be enlivened and sustained spiritually.
Just the Israelites could not have lived in the wilderness
without having sustenance from God.
You and I cannot live physically or spiritually without the bread
of life sustaining us. You need the bread of life.
He is not just something to add to your life with everything
else that you have, like having a loaf of bread and a meal.
That's the way a lot of people. People treat Jesus Christ today
well. I'm going to have my own things,
but then I'm going to add some bread as well.
No, no, He is the bread of life. He is a sustainer without man
and they died. And without Jesus Christ you'll
die in your sins and iniquities. And that instead of eternal
life, the Bible says there's a second death at the lake of
fire. See, there's two issues here
today that are needed for us to understand.
And the first is this, that you need the bread of life for
salvation. You need the bread of life,
Jesus Christ for salvation. I was taking AJ to an
appointment here just a few days ago down in Boston.
And as we were driving through, we went through the very well
known intersection of Mass and Cast.
So you know exactly what I'm talking about.
You can watch it on the news, you can read it online, and you
can find the hopelessness that's there.
Diane and I have gone through Mass and Cast before and seen
people on the ground passed out with needles hanging out of
their arms. It's that every bit of it.
And worse, you know, the answer to mass and cast, you say, is
it, is it, is it some sort of detox facility?
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.
In fact, there's some need for that, isn't there?
Is it some sort of program? There's nothing wrong with the
program. There's some need for that.
But you know, important, more important than any of those
other things is they need the bread of life.
They need the bread of life because what good is if they
detox and what good is if they come clean, and what good is if
they live sober for 20 or 30 or 40 years and then die in their
iniquities and sins and still split hell wide open.
What good has been done? You put window dressing on
something, but yet never really met the needs of the heart.
They need the bread of life. And I'm afraid that when we
think of those who need the bread of life, we think of those
who are the down and outers. We think of those who are strung
out. We think of those who are
drunken. We think of those who are living
on their last dime. These are the people that we
think of. But yet there's millions, yeah,
billions who live on this world. That may not be strung out, that
may not be Alcoholics, that may not be adulterers, but they just
as needfully must have the bread of life in their life as well.
What does this world offer? Not bread.
It offers tainted goods. The tainted goods of vain
religion. Self promotion.
Sexual promiscuity, unbridled greed, the love of money, the
desire for promotion, hatred, all of these things are welled
up within the heart of man and these are dainties of which
Satan is trying to feed people on and trying to control people
with. And it's all the same time
they're looking at those on massive caste and saying at
least I'm not as bad as that. Well, no, you are ending up in
the same spot as they are because they are sinners in need
of the bread of life and you are a Sinner, Sinner in need of the
bread of life. And you may be a lesser Sinner
than that Sinner if we were to judge that way.
But you're still a Sinner in need of a Savior, and only the
bread of life can satisfy. There is nothing of this life of
which you can partake that will satisfy you other than Jesus
Christ. Well, I need another promotion.
Well then what happens after that?
Well, I need someone who gadgets, but what happens after
that? I need a new car.
What happens after that? We need a vacation.
What happens after that? I need a spouse.
What happens after that? Over and over again.
We can name all of these issues that would try to fill your
life. Not all of them are bad, but
they won't fill your life like Jesus will.
The issue is the world will offer like a smorgasbord, all of
these different things. Taste it, it's good.
The man will go around and take a little bit of this, a little
bit of that. We went to a smorgasbord in
Lancaster, PA, a few years ago called Shady Maple.
For $16.00 you could eat until you're in a coma.
It's unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it
in my life. It's unbelievable.
It really is. Could you imagine all these
pastries and and fruit and nobody ate the fruit?
But anyway, all these, all these meats and vegetables and all
these different things. It was incredible.
But could you imagine somebody just sitting down with a couple
of rolls, having paid 16 bucks and say, you know what?
I think I'll just stick to these rolls.
There's there's steak man, there's.
There's. There's fish, there's all the
seafood you want, there's prime rib.
What are what are you doing? You just eating bread?
Nobody would do that. We know what the we know what
Satan does. Says why would you need Jesus?
You think that's going to fulfill you?
I got all these other things fulfill you.
They all look so exciting until you realize that the end thereof
is the ways of death. The Bible says you don't need to
dabble around to find what you need.
You just need Jesus. He is the bread of life.
You need Him to be the bread of life and salvation.
But secondly, you also need to understand this, that if He is
the sustainer of your life as it deals with salvation, He is the
sustainer of your life after you get saved as well.
No, He continues to give your life meaning and purpose and
direction and on and on. Oh, do we need the bread of life
for heaven? Yes, but do we need the bread of
life for this earth as well? Oh yes, that the bread of life
isn't just about a ticket to heaven.
The bread of life is about understanding.
I need him every hour. Could you imagine going to a
steakhouse and they have beautifully cooked steaks?
You see how from the other tables, how how well marbled
they are and how, how expensive they are.
And you see all of these things and they come to your table and
say, what would you like? And you've already looked around
at what everyone else is eating. So you know what?
I I like a Big Mac Now now now why do?
Why do people like Big Macs? You know, look, you know, it's
funny. Everyone says I don't eat at.
McDonald's. So somebody's eating at
McDonald's because it looks like the line's out the door out
there some of these days. And I know not everybody does,
but you wanted people like Big Macs.
I'm one of them to do. Unfortunately.
They're quick and they're cheap. Well, they were quick and cheap,
but they're. Supposed to be.
Quick and cheap. That's the idea.
We know even after we're saved, Satan does a wonderful job at
trying to get us to partake in things that are only temporary.
They don't last. The bread of life was about
eternality. It was about things that would
remain. Jesus would say in Matthew
chapter 8, he would say actually Matthew Chapter 7, I believe he
says do not lay up treasures in heaven where moth and dust doth
corrupt and where thieves breakthrough and steal.
They not on earth, but lay up in heaven those things for where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
What does he say? There's things that abide and
they're things that last. You know the bread of life will
sustain you. You eat of him.
You will be sustained. Your television won't sustain
you. Sports won't sustain you,
particularly the Celtics. They won't sustain you.
Your upcoming plans won't sustain you.
Your money won't sustain you. Your family won't sustain you.
You say, well, what's wrong with some of those things in and of
themselves are not bad, but they won't sustain you, Sir.
Your wife won't sustain you spiritually.
Vice versa is true as well. Children, as you grow, your
parents won't sustain you spiritually.
You have to have a spiritual walk of your own, a place where
you get to realize that it's not the faith of my parents, but
it's my faith as well. Not just trusting him as your
Savior, but also that you're going to serve Him day-to-day,
even after you leave the home. That He is the bread of life.
He's, He's everything. That manna to them was
everything. And that for us in our lives,
Christ is the manna. He's the bread of life.
He sustains us the words clear about this issue.
Psalm 34 verse 80 taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Psalm 119 verse 103. How sweet are thy words, and am
I taste sweeter than honey to my mouth.
First, Peter 2 verses 2 and three as newborn babes, desire
the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if.
So be have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
The more I read this book, the more I read how gracious God is.
The more I read this book, the more I realize how loving God
is. The more I read this book, the
more he sustains. Me the the bread of life as we
find it here in this book. It's labor for those things that
last for eternity. This is what sustains us.
And as believers, far too often we get caught up in all these
other things. And I know we have to deal with
this world. We can't just avoid the world
all together. In fact, we need to interact
with the world so we can help win the world to Christ.
Amen. We're not to participate in the
world shenanigans, but we're able to meet people where they
are, to be able to help them to know there is a different way,
the only way. Jesus Christ, this is what we're
called to do. But don't think that you can
sustain yourself on your own. Maybe you have trouble with
habitual sin in your life. You don't know what to do.
You're at your wit's end. Well, I'll tell you, the answer
is not in you. The answer is in the bread of
life. He is the one who will sustain
you through the trials of which you've imposed on yourself.
He is the one that will get you through.
He is the one that will help you.
He is the one that will give you guidance.
It's all about Him in every way. It is all about Jesus Christ.
So what's the conclusion of this whole matter?
Because Jesus is talking to these people that should have
known better, they didn't know better.
And really it comes down to this.
There's only two options. Drop down to verse #66 if you
will. And I've said this before, I
don't think this is a coincidence that this is John
666. You'll understand in a minute
when we read it. From that time, many of his
disciples went back and walk no more with him.
There were some who claimed to be disciples, to claim to be
followers who said this? I'm not down for this.
And they were gone. This book is serious, following
Christ is serious. And there were some who said I
don't want that, I don't want that.
And they walked away. Can you imagine Jesus having fed
you to the full bread and fish the day before miraculously, and
the next day stumbling at the fact that he said he was the
bread of life and being gone? That's John 666 but go to the
verse #68 actually go to, just go to 67.
Jesus said of the 12, will you also go away?
Says what about you guys? Seems like we started the day
with 12. We magnified by a few thousand
and by the time the day is done, we're back to 12.
What about you guys? And Peter again, not the most
perceptive man before the day of Pentecost, says one of probably
the two best things he said in the Gospels.
He said, this Lord, to whom shall we go?
Why, thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and
are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living
God. There were two choices.
Some walked away, said the bread's not for me, and they
died in their trespasses and sins.
There were others like Peter and ten others who said this, Where
else are we going to go? Because you have the words of
eternal life, we will follow you.
And when you truly understand who Jesus Christ is, I mean,
truly you will do whatever you can do to make sure that He is
the priority in your life. And when he's not the priority
of their life, it tells us that we don't truly understand him as
we ought because if we did, we would be appropriating him for
every single area of our life. Going back to that story about
Cuban bread a little while ago, we were in Springfield, MO about
a year ago, I guess it was, and we were visiting there and
preaching and I was online and I, I found that there was a
Cuban sandwich shop in Springfield, MO.
You said that doesn't make a lot of sense.
And the answer is it don't make a lot of sense, to be honest
with you in the middle of the Ozarks that there is a Cuban
sandwich shop. So I had a lot of questions.
So I went over to this shop and with the family and we said
we're going to go get Cuban sandwiches, Cuban sandwiches
made with Cuban bread. It has ham and pork and Pickles
and mustard. And depending on where you go,
they put other stuff inside of it too.
But it's all pressed together in that Cuban bread and it's again,
amazing. All right, so I go there and the
owner is there working and I kind of like it said about the
Pharisees of Jesus. I proved him with hard
questions. It's like I I want there's some
things I need to know. All right, So I, I said, hey,
I'm from Tampa, FL. I said, where did, where did you
get your bread from? Because usually even around
here, there's a couple Cuban restaurants around here.
When he asked I went to one. They made a Cuban sandwich for
me and I said, where'd you get your Cuban bread?
He she's at Costco. No, not quite.
And so it was good, but it was a Cuban bread.
So I asked him where, where did you get your Cuban brace?
I'm from Tampa too. He says I I get my bread from LA
Sagunda. Now, if you're from Tampa, you
know, La Sagunda is where it's at.
They make the bread for almost everybody in Tampa.
A lot of people that have Cuban bread, they get it delivered
every day from LA Sagunda. They make it fresh right there
in the oven. They put a little palm branch in
it. It just goes.
Anyway, you don't want to know about all that.
But anyway, I'm getting to a point here.
Or just give me a second. And so I started asking, well,
how do you make this and how do you make that?
How do you get the bread? And he's explaining this all to
me, and it's incredible. I said, well, how do you get La
Segunda to send you bread from Tampa all the way to Missouri?
He says well I had to ask them if they would make me a special
size of loaf, one that I could make 2 sandwiches out of.
They don't even make a loaf like this, but they made special
pans. I made a special order and they
make it for me. They par bake it and then they
flash freeze it and then they send it here and then I bake it
in my ovens, finish it off, cut it and do all that.
And I tasted it and it was just like I was sitting in a
restaurant back in Tampa in the middle of the Ozarks.
Don't make any sense. Total cost per sandwich, $25.
No, I'm just kidding. That was it was.
No, it was actually fairly reasonably priced for all the
trouble he went to to be able to get that.
And and I was amazed that this man went to such incredible
lengths to achieve the authenticity of what he was
trying to get for bread. But this is the conclusion I
came up to listen to. We're almost done.
The conclusion I came up to was he understood that the bread was
so important that he would have gone to any length to make sure
that he got it in his shop. He knew that having it was so
important, he would go to any length and almost any cost to be
able to get it. I think if a guy was willing to
do that for a loaf of bread that only myself and Jose and my
family in this room even understands about, and certainly
not one of the Ozarks understands about because we're
the only one there. My question is, shouldn't we,
who knows the bread of life go to whatever length we need to to
make sure that He is our everything in every part of our
life? He will sustain you through
temptation, believer. He will help you.
He will sustain you through your financial difficulties.
He will help you. He will sustain you when you are
discouraged, He'll help you. He will sustain you when you
don't know which way to turn. He'll help you.
He will sustain you when you're not sure how you're even going
to go another step. He will help you.
Why? Because he's not just any bread.
He's not even Cuban bread. He is the bread of life who
gives eternal life but also meaning to this life as well.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.