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The True Bread of Life

Pastor Mike speaking on The True Bread of Life.  He will be in John 6-30-50.

just as I am. And today that message is for you to come to Jesus. That message is a reminder to all of us. Come to Jesus because whoever comes to Jesus, he will not emphatically, absolutely will not cast you out.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church and today you’re tuning in to Hope Worth Having. We are thankful that you have tuned in and joined us this day and that we’re looking forward to a great time as we study God’s Word together.

We’re going to be in John chapter 6 verse 30 through 50 and we’re going to learn about Jesus Christ being the bread of life. And I’ve entitled this message, The True Bread of Life. You know the material and physical is not enough.

The truth is you and I need spiritual food and Jesus Christ is the true bread of life that we can feast on and he nourishes us and he strengthens us and he helps us to grow in our faith. So as we get into the Word of God, open your heart to the truths that Jesus Christ is the true bread of life.

Join me as we study the Bible together. I do want you to learn several important truths about the true bread of life, Jesus Christ. You’re taking notes. I want you to note first that Jesus is spiritual bread.

Jesus is spiritual bread. Look at verse 30 of the text of John chapter 6 and notice what the scripture says, they said therefore unto him. Who is the they? It’s this crowd that’s been looking for Jesus, this crowd that found Jesus, that this crowd that wanted more bread.

They were more interested in, you know, some biscuits and some homemade bread, and they really weren’t interested in true salvation. Jesus said to them, if you back up a little in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent.

So he wanted them to understand that God is working in them and that he is bringing them to an understanding that it’s faith in Jesus Christ. It’s not working your way to heaven. That’s not gonna get you anywhere, but it’s true faith in Jesus Christ.

We go back to verse 30, and so they respond to him. They said therefore unto him, what sign? Show us thou then that we may see and believe thee what doest thou work. You know what kind of question that is?

Think about that. They’ve already seen that he fed 5 ,000. They were part of the group that ate the bread. They saw not only that he fed the 5 ,000, they saw that… that there was so much left out of a little boy’s lunch that they took up basket loads, extras, leftovers, because that’s the way God works.

God not only meets your need, he gives you extra. He always gives you more and abundantly and your cup is always overflowing. And yet they had the arrogance to say to Jesus, what sign do you give us?

What sign do you give us? Jesus, or they continue in verse 31, our father did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, and I want you to get this, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven.

But my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. How could Jesus say that? They go back to the Old Testament and they are reminding Jesus as if he was ignorant to the truth of God’s word, being God himself, that Moses, that the children of Israel were fed by manna that came down from heaven.

And they said our fathers, our forefathers, man, they were fed this way. And Jesus says, no, that’s not how it was. How can Jesus say that? Because it is true. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy that the manna came down from heaven.

And I think as we look at this text, Jesus is trying to help them to distinguish the spiritual from the material. They couldn’t see beyond bread and fish. They couldn’t see beyond the material. What Jesus was drawing a contrast into what Moses did and accomplished through God working in his life about bringing manna from heaven something that was physical, it was temporal, it was material.

And the contrast that Jesus makes when he says in verse 30, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. That is the spiritual. Jesus is the essential spiritual food that we need. He is the spiritual bread that all of us need.

He is the one who satisfies the hungry soul in each of our lives. Jesus has come to a world that is populated by billions of people who are living in a spiritual desert. And if you don’t believe that, just turn on the news, right?

You don’t even have to look far. But there’s a spiritual desert out there in this world, but Jesus is the substance of life. He is the bread of life, and He has come to give us spiritual food. And unlike the bread that they received in the Old Testament, this bread truly has come from heaven.

And it truly is satisfying because remember when they ate the manna that they got tired of it, and then they were complaining and murmuring, and they just were like, it’s not good enough. Here’s the thing about Jesus.

He satisfies, you don’t complain about Him, and He always meets the need in your soul and in your heart. And you never get to the point where you say, you know what, I’m disappointed in Jesus. I’m let down.

Jesus is spiritual bread. The second thing I want you to note is that Jesus is supernatural bread. We come to verse 33. The Bible says, Jesus continues on and says, the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.

The bread that came down during Moses’ day, temporal material, it only gave physical life. But this bread, Jesus Christ, the true bread of life, has come down to this earth, and He gives life, spiritual life.

Eternal life unto all who partake of the bread, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 34, then they said unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Give us this bread. We want this bread. Jesus is the source.

He goes on in verse 35 to Jesus says unto Him, I am the bread of life, and He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth. on me shall never thirst.” He’s a super natural bread and the Father is the source of this bread.

He comes down from the Father. Did you get that in verse 33? He came down from heaven and He gives life. This is a declaration of His deity. Christ is saying that He has come down and that He is the true life unto the world.

Jesus reminds us, if you look in verse 38 again, He reminds us that I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him that sent me. This supernatural bread, God Himself, has come to this earth, sent from the Father, came down from heaven.

And Christ has submitted himself completely to the will of the Father. Jesus is the supernatural bread. The third thing I want you to notice is that he is the satisfying bread. Again we continue in verse 35.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. He’s talking about eternal life. Verse 36, but I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which has sent me.

That of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Jesus is the satisfying bread of life. Verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Remember not among yourselves no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me.

Draw him and I’ll raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man has seen the Father save he which is of God.

He has seen the Father verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me of everlasting life. I am that bread of life. So how does a person believe? How does a person believe in Jesus? Why doesn’t just everybody believe, Mike?

Why doesn’t everybody just respond and take Jesus as the bread of life in their own heart? That is a person believe. You might say, Mike, I believe so, I don’t care. That may be true, but if you’ve got children, you care.

How do children believe? If you’ve got friends that are lost, you care. If you’ve got family members that don’t know Christ, this is a very provocative question to you. If you have grandchildren that do not follow Jesus and believe in Him, then my friends, this is a very important question because I wanna tell you there are thousands, millions of Christians who miss it.

I’m not saying that there’s any secret, it’s just that there’s a lot of distortion. And especially among The church, believers, Bible -believing churches. Christians think, man, if I just raised my kid in church, man, they’re gonna walk out of here loving Jesus.

If I just take him to vacation Bible school or a Wanna, if I just take him to a Christian school, listen to me, if a Christian school guaranteed that your child and grandchild would love Jesus all the days of their life, I couldn’t build buildings big enough to hold all the kids.

If taking your kids to a Wanna guaranteed that they would follow Christ all the days of their life, my friends, there’d be a line on Wednesday going all the way out from that building up past the soccer field all the way down to Grandview.

But taking your kids to church does not guarantee, right? Aren’t we, don’t we have enough common sense to know that? Because some of you have experienced that, right? Your children are not in church.

Your grandchildren are not in church. Your friend is not in church. How does a person believe in Jesus? Jesus tells us. This is what I want you to understand and this is how I want you to pray and this is how I want you to labor and this is how I want you to work and make sure that you’re using the right tools because this is how people come to Christ.

Look at verse 44, my friends, no man. Again, these are the words of Jesus. These aren’t Mike. If you’re mad at the mailman for delivering the electric bill, your anger is pointed in the wrong direction.

Take it to Jesus. I preach the word. No man can come to me except the Father has sent me. Draw him. No man can come to Jesus unless the… when the Father draws him and when the Father draws him, he’s saying, I’ll raise him up at the last day, I’ll get him there.

How does this happen? I want you to understand that if salvation were dependent upon an individual or a sinner’s initiative, that there would be no one who would ever be saved. People don’t come to Christ on their own.

Romans 3, 11 says there’s none that understands, there is none that seeketh after God. When your children come into this world, they are sinners, they are blinded by their sinfulness, they are blinded by the devil, they are blinded by the world and it only gets deeper and more entrenched as they grow up.

Now I know a lot of grandparents that are changing their theology when the grandkids come along, amen. If you notice that. They don’t believe that that little grandchild is a sinner. I was teaching the young couples this morning, and I told them, you are first a missionary to your children.

We should say amen to that. But we don’t see it that way, right? We’re just trying to make it through the day and make sure we got enough diapers and milk. We’re just trying to get them through school.

We’re just trying to make sure their homework’s done. We’re just trying to make sure they walk out on the morning and they brush their teeth. We’re just making sure that they comb their hair. We’re just making sure that they, you know, actually change clothes from three days ago, right?

Your child and every other person you’re trying to get to Jesus and you’re trying to reach to them is unable to respond to the gospel in and of themselves. The Scriptures are clear about this. 1 Corinthians 2 .14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

For they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Friends, if you want your children to come to Christ, if you want your grandchildren to come to Christ, if you want your coworker to come to Christ, if you want your neighbor to come to Christ, there has to be a work of God’s Spirit in their heart before they can have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

How? How, Mike? Now listen, I’m gonna get there. I’m just laying the foundation for you theologically. 1 Corinthians 12 .3, therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.

If the Spirit of God lives in you, it is Jesus. And no one can say that Jesus is the Lord except by the Spirit. Spirit, the only way that you have faith in Christ is through the Spirit. God prepares the heart through the Spirit to respond to Him.

Any faith, any repentance, any salvation in any heart is the work of the Holy Spirit in that heart. What I’m trying to tell you is this. I want you to get this, write this down. Jesus said this, no one comes to the Father unless they’re drawn by the Father.

How does the Father draw people? Write these two things down. The Father draws people by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, that all the other shenanigans, all of the other razzle -dazzles is nothing more.

than secular, temporal, materialistic sugar, but it does not save the soul. It is not the true bread of life. What I’m saying to you, if you wanna draw your children to Christ, they must be under the word of God, and they must be led of the Spirit of God.

They must be drawn by the Spirit. So when Terry and I were raising our children, we kept them under the word. Before they came forth into this world, we read the Bible to them. We prayed with them. We prayed for the spirits working in their hearts.

As our children grew, we prayed that they would be sensitive to the word of God. We made sure that they were getting the word of God, not only in the church, and it certainly helps when you’re the pastor, amen?

But number two, that at home they were getting God’s word, because we knew and we know how God works. God does not work through the razzle -dazzle. He does not work through the shenanigans of the world.

He works through the Spirit and His word. The Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 1, 21, and I know I’m blowing some of your theology up. I didn’t say you couldn’t draw a crowd through entertainment. Penn State draws 110 ,000 people every home game.

The world knows how to draw a crowd, but I’m not trying to draw a crowd. I’m trying to lead people to a true salvation in Jesus. Are you with me, church? There’s a difference, and you better distinguish it that.

And there’s a lot of people who are calling themselves churches, and they draw large crowds, and not against it. But if they’re not using the means of the word of God and the Spirit of God, God it is of not it means nothing you are lying to those people they will not be drawn to God they’ll be drawn to a personality they’ll be drawn to a program they’ll be drawn to entertainment they’ll be drawn to foolishness but God says this in first Corinthians 1 21 it pleased God that’s enough it pleased God friends because that’s all that matters amen it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching it fully pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that what believe to save them that believe people say man Mike you need to do this you need to do that and I say listen to me I have to be honest with you I have to be honest with you.

I’m not a good entertainer. They say, man, Mike, if you’d quit wearing a tie, you’d probably reach more people. Or if you’d wear skinny jeans. Can you see Mike in skinny jeans? It ain’t happening. It ain’t happening, church.

OK? Now, again, if you want to wear skinny jeans and you don’t want to wear a tie, I don’t care. OK? I always tell people, you know a tie. You know how a tie started? Keep the evil spirits away. I wear a tie to keep the evil members away.

Just kidding. Relax. No phone calls, no emails. Unavailable this week. Focused on Easter. Not time for your emails. Here’s what I want you to know, church. Here’s what I want you to know. Those who believe in Jesus are drawn by the spirit and the word, period.

People may respond emotionally. People may be attracted to something, but they’re not saved. I’m sorry. That may be judgmental to you in your heart, but it’s the truth. But I want to tell you, if you truly come to Christ and you are drawn by the spirit, listen, we never, ever forced our kids to get saved.

We never, ever forced them to be baptized. Why? Because it had to be a work of God’s word. Did we teach them baptism? Yes. Did we teach them salvation? Did we constantly examine to see if they’re in the faith?

My kids have had so many conversations with me, they could repeat it back to me. They’re like, we know, dad. But I said, the most important thing to your dad is that you don’t miss heaven. You might have the head knowledge, but you better have the heart knowledge.

And there’s many that Jesus will say, I never knew you. And parents, the key, and those of you that are soul winners, and are reaching out, it should be all of us, but those of you that are committed, you’re drawn by the word and the spirit.

You can’t drag people to the cross. You can’t force them to the cross, and you can’t shove them down the aisle to the cross to get saved. It must be a work of the Father, it must be a work of the Spirit.

You inundate your children, your grandchildren with the word of God. You inundate them with prayers for the Spirit of God to work. You inundate them under the teaching, good solid Bible preaching, teaching.

We don’t care about 10 steps manicuring the lawn, do we? The only people that manicure their lawn are retired people who have nothing to do. Real people have a job, and real people don’t have time to worry about a weed in the yard, amen?

I mean, I got neighbors like that, and they’re chasing down every dandelion that pops up overnight, and I don’t want to go to church to hear about it. I want to go to church and hear the gospel. I want to hear the Word of God.

I want to know what Jesus has to say. Why? Because He is the bread of life. I want to close with a story. Church, so much more I could say to you. But I’ve already gone over. I want to tell you a story about Charlotte Elliott.

She lived in England. She was embittered. She was an invalid. There was a pastor. He wanted to help her. He was a preacher in England from Switzerland. His name was Dr. Caesar Milan. And one day he visited Charlotte.

He came and he was invited to have dinner. And Charlotte, with her family there, lost her temple. And she began to rail against God and speak vulgar language about Jesus. And her family was so embarrassed that they got up from the table and they left the room.

Dr. Milan alone was Charlotte in this room. Stared at her across the table saying, you are tired of yourself, aren’t you? She said, what is your cure? And he said to her, the cure is Jesus. If you want to become a Christian and share in the joy of salvation and the peace of Christ, you must be saved.

She said, what would I do? What would I do? He said to her, you would give yourself completely to Jesus. Charlotte did come to Jesus. She did ask Christ to forgive her of her sins. Her heart was changed that day and as time passed in her life she was still an invalid but she found and she claimed John chapter 6 verse 37 as a very special verse to her.

Charlotte later wrote a poem. You know that poem. It was sold all across England. It was put in a leaflet. It was headlined as John 637. Underneath Charlotte’s poem was entitled, The Famous Invitational Hymn, Just As I Am.

On that day, Charlotte’s most vulnerable moment and insecurities were exposed as she was brought into the light of Jesus Christ. And on that day, just as she was, she came to Jesus Christ and she believed in Him.

She was drawn by the Spirit. She was drawn by the Word of the faithful preacher who would not back down, who was not afraid, who did not leave the room, but shared the gospel with her. And today, Charlotte is in heaven.

And today, we sing her song, just as I am. And today, that message is for you to come to Jesus. That message is a reminder to all of us. Come to Jesus, because whoever comes to Jesus, He will not emphatically, absolutely, will not cast you out.

The Father is the source of bread. He is the source of life. And Jesus Christ is that bread. He is that life. He has sent us the true bread of life. And by believing in Jesus Christ, we can continue to find satisfaction in Jesus Christ.

And today, you may be looking, you may be searching, you may be doubting and have many questions about who Jesus is. Friend, I tell you that He is more than all that you’re looking for. And He is the answer to every doubt in question that you have in your life.

Jesus Christ comes and He brings eternal life to all who believe in Him. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not be saved. perish but have everlasting life.

Today I invite you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and today as you call upon Christ if you are reaching out to Him let us know that today you’ve given your life to Him you’ve surrendered your heart to Him and you’re ready to receive Him as the true bread of life.

Go to our website hopeworthhaving .com and hit our contact button and send us a message about how Christ is changing your life and how He has come to be your true bread of life and He has provided the forgiveness that you need in your life.

I also want to encourage you that you can write us at Hope Worth Having 600 Miller Street, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201 or feel free to call us at 717 -264 -3266 and we’ll be glad to hear how God is working in your life.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ There is hope worth having.

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