010 - Pita or Pumpernickel?

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink!

Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to, More Than Ink. Hey Jesus said, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life. Oh, that's really creepy. That sounds like zombies. That sounds like Halloween.

It's coming up at the end of this month. What was he talking about? Yeah, I think we need to unwind this to figure out what's going on here. So today, in John 6, on More Than Ink. Hi there. Welcome today.

This is More Than Ink. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim, and we're glad you're back with us. I hope you're sitting at your dining room table like we are on this Saturday morning with your cup of coffee. Maybe you've even got your toast, because today we're going to talk about bread.

Hey, that's a good idea. This is an object lesson. Yeah, so it will enhance your morning with this if you grab a piece of toast right now, and maybe even a bagel. That's like Jewish bread.

There we go. So, you know, who knows? Well, and it better be, maybe it better be unleavened bread, because this passage takes place close to the Passover.

Chances are they didn't have any leavened bread laying around. So what in the world are we talking about? You know, we came out of last week in John 5, where Jesus makes some of the most audacious claims about who He is. Like, you're not honoring the Father unless you honor me. I mean, I don't do anything that I don't see the Father doing.

I mean, it's audacious. And you think, well, where can you go from here? This is, you don't even love God if you don't honor me, if you don't recognize me.

So you think that would be the top of the mountain. But, you know, what we get to today is not so much who Jesus is, although that will come up, but who Jesus is in terms of what our need is. Do we really have a need for Jesus, or is it just all about, you know, claiming who He is, and that's all there is? What if there's actually a deep, set need inside of us that we don't know about? And we talked about this about four or five weeks ago when we talked about hungering after the wrong things. So He's going to couple together who He is with a fundamental need that we have.

Well, He's going to demonstrate it with something very concrete and daily. Exactly. Like bread. Like bread. And bread, remember, you've got to go first century on everything. We have a very varied diet ourselves.

The first century they didn't. And the one thing that could get you by from day to day and week to week is bread itself. And we even talk about bread that way now. You know, bread is the essential food you need.

And if you've got that, you can make it. You can make a sandwich. You can have toast.

Exactly. So it's the essential food. So basically when you think of bread in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it's not quite like us. Bread is an optional element of our diets.

It wasn't. It was the central part of your diet. So Jesus is going to now say that not only am I who I claim to be in John 5, but I am the essential food you need. I am the bread of life. You have a need.

And I am that need. So we're just going to summarize the beginning of the event. This, like John 5, starts with a real life event that happens. And then it just causes a ruckus of understanding after that. So why don't you start off and tell us what happens at the beginning. What's the big event that happens that triggers all this bread talk?

Okay. So they had gone a little ways across the Sea of Tiberius or the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus went out there to teach his disciples. But the beginning of John 6 says, Now the Passover of the Feast of the Jews was at hand. This is verse 4. And lifting up his eyes and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, Philip said, Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?

So they're out kind of in the middle of nowhere. But people are on the road because it's Passover. We don't know whether this is before or after the Passover, but they were supposed to go to Jerusalem for the Passover if they could.

One of the three festivals every year. People are on the road and they're away from home and they're walking and they see Jesus out here. And so they begin to gather around him to hear him teach.

Right. And Jesus feels responsible to feed them because they're hanging out there and not eating food and they're getting hungry. So he does a great thing. He turns to Philip and says, So Philip, what are we going to do? Where are we going to buy bread? And then Philip even says, Well, you know, even if we have enough money, you know, we'll only give enough, a little for everybody.

So even buying food, if we could, is just kind of a silly answer. You can almost see the twinkle in Jesus' sight at this point. He's setting these guys up. Where are we going to buy bread? What are we going to do, Philip? What are we going to do? In fact, you would think if they're starting to understand who Jesus is, they would just look to him and say, Well, Jesus, do something. And he turns to Philip and says, Well, what are you going to do?

Like his mother at the wedding would have said, What are you going to do? And listen to him do something. Yeah. Yeah. So the suggestion comes up. Well, we did find a little bit of food.

There's this kid over here who's got, you know, it's got five little loaves of barley and he's got a couple of fish. But you know what? That's nothing for all these people because they're talking 5,000 men, heads of households. Plus their families. Yeah.

So we're talking maybe at least 10,000 plus people. So with five loaves and two fishes like this, I don't even know why he mentioned that because that would be a little embarrassing. You know, Oh, we found this. Well, it's interesting. All four gospels relate this event.

And they all include slightly different details, but they all include it. So this is important. This was a turning point for the disciples, probably. Gigantic event. I don't know that after this that anyone in the northern part of Israel and Galilee wasn't talking about this and saying, have you heard about this Jesus guy?

Well, and probably let's just put this on the table. There was a second time when Jesus fed a large crowd. This one is on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. The other event takes place on the Gentile side. So today we're talking about the Jewish side, which is why the conversation that follows centers on manna and how God fed his people in the wilderness.

So, you know, this is one of those events where if Jesus could make a big splash in a short amount of time about who he is, this is one of those. Well, you wonder if even the crowd even realized what was happening. They just knew the bread was coming around. Jesus was giving thanks and breaking it and handing it out. But they really probably weren't close enough to see what was happening.

But the disciples were. They knew that they'd had no resource and that he just took this kid's lunch and multiplied it and each of the 12 gathered up a full basket of crumbs afterwards. So they knew. They had a front row seat. Exactly what had taken place.

Yeah, it was crazy stuff. So Jesus says, have the people sit down. And there's this great sense of expectation.

Hey, we're going to eat. Yeah. Yeah. So and sure enough, when all this happens, and the foods multiplied, you know, 14 people saw the sign and they believed he was. They said, this is indeed the prophet who's come into the world. So they know he's something really special.

Okay. And Moses had said that. That's what they're referring to. Way back in Deuteronomy 18, Moses had said, the Lord is going to raise up for you a prophet just like me. In other words, he's going to give you bread. He's going to give you water.

He's going to lead you in life and provide for you just like I have only in reality. In reality. But their response to having all this food is, well, gosh, if this guy has limitless amounts of food, let's make him king. Because we can have free lunch all the time. And then we will eat like kings for the rest of our lives. Who's in for that?

And everyone raises their hand and says, I am. So Jesus actually doesn't want that to happen. So he withdraws.

Right. He goes away by himself on the mountain and he actually sends the disciples home. And again, most of the gospels then include what happens next is they're out there on the sea, in the boat, and there's a storm. And Jesus comes to them walking on the water. So he is revealing himself to them, right?

What had just happened, the whole crowd saw. But this walking on the water is just for them. Yeah. So I don't know how the apostles could have any doubts about who he is after these two events. Well, it's clear by the end of chapter six that they don't. They don't. Yeah. They don't.

So this is enough for them. They know who he is. So we encourage you to look at that part about walking on the water.

It's kind of interesting. It's an interesting ruse, too, for Jesus to get away from the people because he sends the apostles ahead without him being in the boat. And people stay behind thinking, well, Jesus didn't get in the boat, so he's here someplace. Right.

And we might get a free breakfast out of this tomorrow. Right. And the only way he can still get away from them is by sneaking out at night and walking on the water. He didn't even take a boat. So they can't even twice came and traced that he left. So that causes a great amount of confusion with the people. And it causes what I call the great Tiberius boat lift. Because the next day, the next day, people in Tiberius, Tiberius, if you think of the Sea of Galilee as a face of a clock, Tiberius is at around eight or nine o'clock on the clock, where this feeding the 5,000 happens around 12 o'clock to one o'clock on the clock up there. And they get on the boats and go over to Capernaum, which is about 10 or 11 on the clock. So the Tiberius people down at eight or nine go up to about 12 or one, and then they get there and say, Jesus isn't here. Well, he's not here. Where is he?

He's not here. So then they all turn around, get in their boats, and they go from one o'clock on the clock over to about nine o'clock on the clock. Ten o'clock. Ten o'clock to Capernaum.

So that's the big boat lift. I mean, everyone's, the word got out that there's free food and then people came from all over that part. So when they find him in Capernaum, they're like, well, how do you get here? How do you get here? Why are you here now?

We were watching the boats and you didn't take a boat. We were waiting for breakfast. Yeah, exactly. So they're looking for food. And so Jesus does indeed raise, this is the essential, this is the core reason about why he did this, is let's talk about food and what's really food. And when they came over, he says, look, verse 26, he says, truly, look, I say to you, you're seeking me, okay, but not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. So don't 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. So he's making a bold claim about, you know, you think what you really need is bread. Right.

And you know, our stomachs when they rumble tell us that too. But he says, you do need bread, but that's not the essential bread. You're missing the point. There's more bread. In fact, way, way back in the Old Testament, you know, Moses says that whole event with manna is that, you know, he did the manna event, allowed him to be hungry so that they would know that man doesn't live by bread alone. Right. That's in Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8.

And we read that a few weeks ago. God says the whole point of that was so that you would know what you're really hungry for, that you are dependent on me. Exactly.

For what you really need. And Jesus is making exactly the same point. You guys have been cruising all over the Sea of Galilee all morning because you're looking to fill your bellies. And that's not really the point of, that's not really real food. You have a hunger that's much different. He's actually going to say, I am the bread that God sent down from heaven.

I am the real manna. Yeah. In fact, where does he say that? Well, he says it in 35. He says it in, yeah, he says it a couple times.

Yeah. But let's back up here because then they say, well, what should we do to work the works of God? Because he says, you know, work for the food that gives you eternal life. Well, yeah. Well, what work is that? He says, don't work for the food that perishes.

Talking about right food. Right. So how, what do we work for the other kind?

How do we do that? Right. He says, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Well, you know, it ought to make us stop when we realize they're asking Him for a sign that what He says is true. Well, what did He just do?

The only reason they're there is because they got the free lunch yesterday and they're looking for a free breakfast today. It's like, well, how much of a sign do you need? Yeah. Yeah. And the sequence of the conversation, it causes me laugh when I see it.

It does. Because Jesus says, you know, quit working for pumpernickel. It's not about bagels. You want your bagels today.

There's a deeper hunger that you have that you don't even know about. Don't work for bagels, basically says. Work for something that has more eternal, satisfying nature in terms of your needs. You got to work for that. And they said, so how do we work for that?

And He says, oh, I'll show you how you work for that. Believe on Him. Believe. Believe in the one the Father has sent. Right. Which means believe who I am. And then this is where it gets funny.

Then they say, well, okay, maybe, but we need a sign. Well, and who are you compared to Moses? He gave our Father's bread in the wilderness. Right. You can just see him smack at his forehead. Jesus was a real human being.

And I just want to hear him sighing and going. Yeah. Moses gave them food in the wilderness. Moses gave them free food every single day. What's wrong with us looking for free food every single day from you?

Can that be so wrong? Moses did it. In verse 32, he says, his answer is, I say to you, it isn't Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven.

It's my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. Right. Even back there in the wilderness, it wasn't Moses who gave them bread. Right.

Moses told them it was going to happen and instructed them how to gather it. But it was God who gave it. Right.

But it's the people making that mistake here. That's right. Because Jesus is saying, I'm not going to give you bread, even if we think you're the prophet. Right.

Well, why won't you? Moses was a prophet, and he gave us bread. No, Moses did not give you bread. So he says the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And here's the funny part too. They said, oh, so evermore give us this bread. You know what?

That's the same way the woman at the well asked the question. Right. Oh, living water, flowing water, give me that water. Amen. You're like, hey, give me that bread. Amen. But Jesus then, in 33, he gives us that nice, succinct definition of what we really need. What's our true hunger? What will actually provide life from day to day like a bagel every day does? This is something even more deep than that. What gives it, and he says it succinctly, he says, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

So if you're looking for that essential nutrient that actually provides life for you, that essential thing that provides life, like bread provides life for you day to day, what is it? It's what comes down from heaven, just like manna came down from heaven. And he had already said back in chapter five, I hope you catch it. I have come from the father. I'm coming to do his will to accomplish his works. So here in chapter six, he says in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you've seen me and you still don't believe. Exactly. And interestingly enough, he doesn't take the tack that they're thinking like, well, we want you to be like Moses who gave us bread, which is wrong. Moses didn't give them bread, but Moses was connected with it. They didn't say to him, we want you to be our eternal baker. We want you to be the guy who provides bread. Jesus doesn't say, I don't provide bread. I am the bread. I am the essential thing that you need to feed on. And I came out of heaven.

That's a vastly different thing. It's like, he's not saying like, I will provide for you from what I do, the essential nutrient for life. I am the essential nutrient for life. That's a huge jump away from Moses and the manna. And now Jesus says, I am that manna. I am a bread that's going to carry you right out of this material life and into eternal life.

And so all of a sudden the conversation is about something much bigger. He says in verse 38, I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Oh, he's come from heaven.

He's doing what God wants him to do. And this is the will of him who sent me that all he's given me, I will lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. Oh, all of a sudden we're talking about resurrection and judgment and eyeball to eyeball with God, all of those kind of ideas. And life in an eternal perspective, not just tomorrow's bagel. Right.

Yeah, exactly. For this is the will of my father, verse 40, that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I myself will raise him up on the last day. This is life.

This is an amazing statement. Jesus is saying, I, and he already told them in chapter five, I have life in myself and I give it to everyone the father brings to me. He's saying it again here. Yeah. I will raise him up and give him life.

Yeah. And he's, he's brought into the discussion, uh, an issue about time, eternity that has not been part of the discussion so far, although it was hinted at in John one. But, but you know, you can, you can talk about Moses. Moses isn't going to be around on the last day for do anything for us. Isaiah the prophet's not going to be around. I mean, no one in the Old Testament that they held in high regard is going to be, but Jesus is saying, I'm going to be there on the last day. That's the judgment day and I'll raise you up and that there'll be a source of life. So now he's making a claim that he is outside the confines of man's timeline experience. Yeah. When he says there and they respond that way. Well, what is the heck?

He came down from heaven. We know where you live. We know your father, we know your brothers and sisters names. We, I don't think you're that. Yeah. So when he tries to go to the eternal perspective, I'm going to bring life and we're talking about life that is eternal in terms of timeless. Right.

They're going, I don't think so, pal. We saw you making stuff with your dad in your carpenter shop. I mean, we know your parents, we know we, we know where you lived. So how can you make this claim? How can you make this claim? That you have some kind of eternal nature and, and that you came out of heaven? No, you came out of Nazareth. See, this takes us back to what he had said in chapter five.

There's the witness of what I have done, the works, what the father has done through me or said about me, what the scripture has said about me. And he doesn't reference those things, but that conversation had already taken place. He probably had said it more than once. Probably. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So he's, again, he's trying to draw the big picture who he is too. He's not just a prophet who's come, you know, whose time comes and goes after, you know, 20, 60, 80 years or something like that. But he's someone who has a, an eternal role in terms of bringing life.

That's more than just what your tummy needs tomorrow. But he is bringing life just like the essential nutrient bread brings life. So here's a skill you can apply to this passage and that is when you are reading it, jot down on the second piece of paper, how many times he make reference to eternal life, to believing, to the bread.

How many times does he talk about life and what life really consists of and who he is in relation to it. Put those in your own words, put them on a second piece of paper so you can take it over to your easy chair and just contemplate it. Contemplate it. The good spiritual word we would use is meditate.

But I would say just think about it. What does this say to me personally about Jesus and how can I feed on this bread? Yeah, exactly. And my, is my, we talked about this in another show, do I really have a gnawing sense that I have, that I should have a hunger for something that I don't feel a natural hunger for? And that's, that's all Jesus is trying to point them to here. And that's what Moses is trying to point him to when the manna thing happened.

You have a, you have a deeper need for something to support your life that you don't know about. And in fact, yeah, and he makes a great contrast. He says, well, he says in verse 47, he says, you know, your fathers, they ate the man in the wilderness, but they died.

I mean, it was a very temporary fix. Verse 49. Yeah. But he says, but this is the bread and I always see him pointing to himself. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, just like manna came out of heaven. So that you, so one may eat of it and not die. That's life-giving. That's right. Real bread prevents death all by itself. And that's what he's saying.

That's what I do. You eat of this bread and you will not die. Okay.

And then he says this thing that just about breaks your brain in the same breath, right? He who eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Okay.

Now there's an argument, right? At this point, the crowd just erupts and they start saying, what, how can you give us his flesh to eat? Because up until now it sounds very metaphorical.

Right. Until he says you could eat my flesh. You go, okay, that doesn't sound metaphorical anymore. Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in your cells.

What? We weren't talking about blood until now. He who eats 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. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. Yikes. Okay, so this is like the definitive statement, you are what you eat.

Yeah, but it comes down to understanding who he is. And what is life? Right.

Is it simply this body that we live in or is it something bigger and other? Yeah. So, you know, we find that the crowd was not reacting very well at this point.

John tells us in verse 59, he said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. So this is where he was well known and suddenly he's talking about this very difficult and hard thing. And a lot of the people who had been sort of his tag-along followers at that point said, too weird for me, I'm out of here.

Not going to follow this guy anymore. Yeah, they said in 60, this is a hard saying. Right. I mean, who can listen to this? They're having a hard time. And I get why they would. I get why they would. Okay, but Jesus, he knows and he says, is that so hard for you? Really?

Does it cause you to stumble for 62? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before? Here's the truth. It's the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. So he just spells it out from and says, you know, I'm not talking about sitting down and being a cannibal. Right. I'm talking about a greater spiritual reality that bread and bodies and blood all speak to.

Right, right. And he weaves in the whole message again of belief in who he is and mentions that they're right again, those who believe and those who haven't believed. So it seems almost metaphorically, you know, you eat the bread of heaven, who is Jesus, if you believe who he is and who sent him. And internalize. That's the picture of eating. Internalize.

Any food that we eat, literally goes in and becomes the stuff of which our cells are made and gives us growth and sustains our physical life. So Jesus is amplifying or opening up that picture to feeding on him, internalizing the truth of who he is and what he has accomplished for us. Yeah, so you know, you internalize by taking things in like that. So we're not talking about just an intellectual sense to the fact, well, I think Jesus was a historical man. Sure, he walked on the earth and stuff. And there's certain things I have in my head that I believe. That's not what belief is in the New Testament. Belief is starting there and then moving towards internalizing it inside so you actually build a dependence on him for life itself, just like they built a dependence on manna in the wilderness deliberately. Well, if you want to live a life that's more than just your 80 years, life comes from him and that life, you eat that life by basically taking into you that belief and depending on it.

Not just into your body, but into your spirit, into the deep places of who you are, what do you feed your mind and your heart on. Yeah, and if you know the rest of the New Testament, you know about the communion that Jesus has, the Lord's Supper and stuff like that, and you flash to that where he says, this is my body that's broken for you. And so he's alluding right back to this. You know, I'm the bread, I'm the bread that came out of heaven and this bread has been broken for you. And when he says broken, it's partially physically broken, but also, you know, separated and given to many, not just one person. So if you see that connection, good for you, because that's, I think that's a deliberate connection that the apostles didn't have the advantage of doing here because they haven't had that event take place yet. But later on they'd say, yeah, that's exactly what it was. So it's interesting to me that Jesus himself knows that when he presents this truth, it's going to be very difficult and it's going to divide the crowd. John tells us Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn't believe and who it was that would betray him. So he was saying, for this reason, I've said to you, no one can come to me unless it's been granted him from the Father. Those who have a heart, a genuine heart to seek the truth, and they're after God in truth, are going to recognize God in the Son that he isn't. Exactly.

Yep. And look at Peter's affirmation in 68. You know, Jesus asked, are you guys going to go away too when the crowds go away? And Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

The life that goes eternally, that goes beyond our own life. And we have believed and have come to know that you're the Holy One of God. You're the guy.

You're the one. Peter believes. He says, in fact, he might have been admitting that it was a tough statement, and he might not have figured it out. But he did know who Jesus was. So he said, regardless, I'm sticking out. We're sticking around because you have the words of eternal life.

We've got that. So that belief in who he was will cause him to stick around. Even though I think at that very juncture, they were probably having the same questions that the rest of them were like, are we in a cult or what? And actually in the other Gospels, I think it's in Luke that he says at that point, now don't go tell anybody. Right.

Because they didn't fully understand yet the implication of that, that he had to die in order for that to become reality. Yeah. Yeah. So stay with us. We are so glad you've been with us today. And we're out of time.

We're out of time again. Boy, you know, I could talk about John 6 forever and ever. Yes. So come back and join us next week.

Yeah. Read John 7. Read ahead with us. Explore with us. Make some notes as you go. Write down your questions.

We'll compare our notes when we get there next Saturday. And meditate on that. So I'm Jim. Word of Life.

And I'm Dorothy. And this is More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org.