On Sunday, March 29, 2015 Pastor Joe Troutman preached the sermon entitled “I Am the Bread of Life” from John 6:30-35. The Old Testament background for this New Testament passage is that of our Scripture Reading from Nehemiah 9:9-21.
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. (John 6:30-35 ESV)
Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will never again spiritually hunger or thirst because he is I AM.
That We May See – Having exhorted the thousands of people following him because he fed them to believe in him, they assume he only wants them to believe his words. Challenging whether he is “The Prophet” foretold by Moses, they demand yet another sign from him, as if multiplying five loaves and two fish was insufficient. Jesus had said they need to believe in him and so do the work of God, but they want him to work more miracles. They want signs, just not the ones they get.
True Bread – Jesus proclaims Moses wasn’t the source of the manna, but that God the Father is the source of the true Bread from heaven of which the manna was only a type. Again they focus on bread that only temporarily satisfies bodily hunger and perishes, while Christ offers himself as the Bread from heaven that gives eternal life.
I Am – In proclaiming “I am the bread of life,” Jesus uses a familiar term which the crowd would have recognized, with which he identifies himself as not just a mere prophet or miracle worker, but as Yahweh himself, the covenant God of Israel who called Moses from the burning bush, lead the children of Israel as a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night and provided them with the manna which typifies himself who is the heaven-sent bread of eternal life. This is what must be believed about Jesus Christ in order to do the work of God.
Listen to “I Am the Bread of Life” at mcopc.org.
Mid-Cities Presbyterian Church Library 
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