Bread of Life

m01650

TITLE: CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE

"BREAD"

When I said the word BREAD, what came to your mind? Maybe a loaf of Wonder bread from the store? Maybe a loaf of home-baked bread fresh out of the oven?

My wife has baked our bread off and on through our marriage. The family used to like to cut a freshly baked loaf and spread on the butter. We are so used to it now that we seldom take notice when she takes fresh bread from the oven.

Possibly you thought of money when I said "BREAD.”

Why is bread important to the average American today? THE EDIBLE KIND!

If you are thinking that bread isn't all that important to us you are probably correct. Many Americans could go days without bread and not miss it greatly. However make them go very long without a big Mac and you will have trouble.

If you were an Old Testament person, your mind would form a picture of a wafer of bread about a fingers width thick and about a hand spread around. Somewhat similar to a small frisbee. The bread was cooked on hot rocks or at times in hot sand. Possibly an account of Egyptian bread would give you a picture of what the Biblical Jew would think when he heard the term "BREAD.”

(From Unger's Bible Dictionary p 154-155; quoting Maspero, Dawn Of Civilization p 320) "She spread some handfuls of grain upon an oblong slab of stone, slightly hollowed on its upper surface, and proceeded to crush them with a smaller stone like a painter's muller, which she moistened from time to time. For an hour and more she labored with her arms, shoulders, loins, in fact, all her body; but an indifferent result followed from such great exertion. The flour, made to undergo several grindings in this rustic mortar, was course, uneven, mixed with bran or whole grains, which had escaped the pestle, and contaminated with dust and abraded particles of the stone. She kneaded it with a little water, blended with it, as a sort of yeast, a piece of stale dough of the day before, and made from the mass round cakes, about half an inch thick and some four inches in diameter, which she placed upon a flat flint, covering them with hot ashes. The bread, imperfectly raised, often badly cooked, borrowed, from the organic fuel under which it was buried, a special odor, and a taste to which strangers did not sufficiently accustom themselves. The impurities which it contained were sufficient in the long run to ruin the strongest teeth. Eating it was an action of grinding rather than chewing, and old men were not infrequently met with whose teeth had gradually been worn away to the level of the gums, like those of an aged...ox"

Now, that adds meaning to the term "BREAD" when Scripture uses the term doesn't it!

We today, need bread to scrape up the gravy after we have finished off the roast, mashed potatoes, green beans etc. RIGHT! We do not NEED bread today with all that we have.

Many people across the world and indeed some in our own country do NEED bread to exist. Very few American's know this type of need.

My brother had the habit of removing all the outer crust from his bread when he ate it. He only liked the inner softer part. If our mother had been alive to see it, she would have said, "Now George, eat that crust there are people starving all over the world and they would love to have that crust!" He would probably have replied, "Well, send it to them."

In our day of steaks, roasts, Arby's, McDonald's, lamb etc. we really cannot identify with the term "BREAD OF LIFE". Bread does not mean life to us today.

In this study we want to try and place our selves within the context of bread being a necessity of life so that we can understand what the Bible is trying to tell us this.

Let's turn for a few moments to John chapter six.

Take a moment and read Jo 6:25-29.

Christ has been approached by people that had evidently been at the feeding of the 5000. He introduces them to the idea that there is not only physical food but that there is also spiritual food.

Indeed, his emphasis is on the Spiritual food! The spiritual food leads to eternal life while physical food leads only to life.

Do we have that concept in our minds? Do we really believe and live out the principle that physical bread is only for life - while SPIRITUAL BREAD IS UNTO LIFE!

What a bold statement concerning Man's need.

Read 6:30-35. Christ is told by the people that Moses had given the Jews manna from heaven and Jesus corrects them by telling them it was not Moses that gave the bread.

He goes on to tell them that the Father has sent them THE BREAD OF GOD! In verse 35 Christ makes the statement, "I am the bread of life.” "I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.”

You might say, "Christ is the necessity of life.” He is the sustainer of life. He is that which gives life.

Indeed, in verses 47-51 He makes this fact even plainer than before.

Read 6:47-51. He contrasts the Israelites that ate manna in the wilderness being dead, to Himself as the eternal life giving bread. Indeed the life giving bread is His flesh and He gave it for the "life of the world.”

Let's think about the contrast of the Manna of the wilderness and Christ the Bread of Life.

MANNA BREAD OF LIFE

1. It came from heaven Christ came from heaven

2. It saved lives physically Christ saves souls eternally

3. It was sufficient in given Christ is sufficient - amounts NOTHING needs to be added (not even works)

4. They weren't to take to much Christ is the only answer

5. It gave physical life Christ gives eternal life

6. Partakers died physically Partakers live eternally

All is done now on Christ's side.

He died, was buried and rose again for our eternal salvation - if we will only believe and accept that sacrifice that He made for OUR SINS!

We also have another picture in the Old Testament that is directly related to the Lord's table. The passover meal of the book of Exodus pictures the remembrance that we gather for in the Lord's table.

The context of the next passage is the occasion of the coming of the last plague upon the Egyptians when Pharaoh would not allow Moses to lead the children of Israel out of bondage.

God is setting forth the requirements for the physical salvation of Israel's first born. Read Ex. 12:3-17. The passover meal was to be a celebration or a remembrance of the taking of the children of Israel out of bondage.

This text is full of pictures - Egypt is a type of the world, Pharaoh is a type of Satan and servitude is a type of sin. The whole occasion is a picture of salvation!

For a moment I'd like to look at the Passover meal and salvation. Remember if you will, that the Last supper where the Lord's table was instituted was actually the passover meal remembrance required by the Old Testament. Christ was celebrating the passover when He told the disciples to remember Him and His work with the elements of the cup and loaf.

PASSOVER SALVATION

1. A perfect lamb was in view The perfect lamb was in view

I Pet 1:18-21 mentions, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God."

2. The lamb was innocent The Lamb was innocent

3. The lamb was killed The Lamb was crucified

4. The lamb's blood was placed The Lamb's blood was on the cross over the doorpost

5. The blood saved the firstborn The blood saves us

6. The bread was to remind them of The bread is to remind us of their freedom from bondage our being freed from sin through the Bread of Life

As God viewed the blood over the door post of the Israelites so He will view the shed blood of Christ as we stand before Him.

The bread of the Lord's table reminds us of Christ's time on the cross dying to provide the payment for each of our sins.

The story is told of a man that had a dream of seeing Jesus being whipped with a whip with lead embedded in the ends of the lashes. Christ was bleeding and in much pain. The man dreaming ran forward to stop the beating. As he reached the spot of the whipping, the man with the whip turned. The man saw that it was himself.

Jesus suffered on the cross for your sin and my sin. WE PLACED HIM ON THE CROSS. The Jews crucified Him, however the Scriptures are very clear that Christ laid down His life and that no one took it from Him. He was completing the work that the God the Father had sent Him to do. HE DIED FOR MY SINS! HE DIED FOR YOUR SINS!

Yes, Christ is truly the BREAD OF LIFE and without a personal relationship with HIM we cannot see the glories of God and the heaven that He has prepared for us.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior you will only glimpse the glories of heaven as you bow before Him in judgment and then you will behold the torments of the Lake of Fire for eternity.

If you are today a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are free to share eternity with Him forever.