The Bread

I am the bread of life, Jesus said in John 6:35.

Now if bread equals life and if Jesus equals bread, then Jesus equals life. Today we'll hear about eight insights into this life Jesus offers us. and we'll learn that this life is found in Jesus alone. Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller.

Today, join us for another in a long series of messages from the Gospel of John we're calling Loved by Jesus. Our focus, the bread. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and assistant pastor Larry McCarthy.

Well good morning everybody and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so glad you've chosen to spend your time with us today. And we are going to lean in today on what Jesus means when he says, I am the bread of life. You know, bread is a staple diet. It's what you survive on.

And so when Jesus says he's the bread, he's telling us, I'm your very life. I'm the thing you can't live without. And boy, is that true. We need more of Jesus more than anything else. That's what we need.

And so would you pray with me this morning as we begin and ask for Jesus to come and to feed us? Father, we thank you that Jesus is our life. And we pray, Jesus, that you would come, that you would be our bread this morning. Our souls are starving for you. We need your nourishment.

We need your strength. We need the vitality that can only come from you. And so, Jesus, come and teach us. We pray this in your name. Amen.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Come all you weary, come all you thirsty. Come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water, come and thirst no more. Come all you sinners, come find His mercy, come to the table, He will satisfy.

Taste of His goodness, find what you're looking for. For God so loved the world that He gave us His one and only sin. Come to save us, whoever believes in Him, let's sing. Bring all your heads, bring your foundations, don't lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting there for all in ours.

Praise God, praise God, come who all blessings for praise, praise Him for the wonders of. His love is amazing love. God's so love, the one that He gave us, His one and only Son to sing. For God's so love, the one that He gave us, His one and only Son to save us, whoever believes in Him to live forever. God's so love, God's so love for your failures, bring your empty.

I'll lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting, God so love the world. Oh, and God could fill his grace breathe by our hearts to know your praise that from us. Our slow burning of Christ and we gave up the praise in Christ of God, so clear and true breathing our mind to trust in you and give us the bread and give our thyroid.

So I'm straight. Refresh our souls. We ask the care. Remind us of your size and we do our praise in thy heart God does the sweet in holyness forever. And we made the grace in holy breaths of human and we made the grace.

Lord, we pray today for nourishment from your word that we'd be empty of everything else and fill. Yeah. With your spirit, with your words today. Like manna for today, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Praise him this morning for his son, Jesus. Bread of life bread of life sent down from glory many things you were on earth a holy king of carpenter you are the living bread of heaven bread of heaven sent down from glory many things you were on earth a holy king of carpenter you are the living awesome ruler Awesome rule of gentle redeemer. Gentle redeemer God with us God with us the living truth and what a friend we have in you You are the ruler Awesome rule of gentle redeemer Gentle redeemer God with us yes God with us the living truth And what a friend we have in you You are the living Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus That's what we call you major born major born But on a tree you died to save you Many you are the living Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus that's what we call you major born Major born but on a tree You died to save humanity You are the living Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus That's what we call you That's what we call you Major born Major born but on a tree You died to save humanity You are the living Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus That's what we call you That's what we call you major born You're born, but on the tree you died to save man and death and you are the living world, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, is what we call you, that's what we call you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, that's what we call you, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you are the living word, Almighty Father, we do indeed, we just thank you, Lord, that you allow us to come into your presence and that you. You have given us the opportunity to dig into your word, but we are quick to confess to you today, right here, right now, that we often neglect the book that you've given us.

Far too often, we fatten our souls on things that simply don't satisfy. things that Don't Take care of the ache. that we have, the longing. that we have.

So, Father, we pray that today you would feed us from your word, that you would use Pastor Miller to nourish us from your word, because our heart's desire, Father, is that we would have a real, dynamic, and personal relationship with you.

So, hear our cry, Father, and feed us today, we pray. Find us always quick, Lord. To give you the honor, to give you the praise, to give you the glory, to give you the worship because you're worthy, Father.

Now we pray. In the matchless name of Jesus. And amen. Today, we come to the first of the seven I am statements that are recorded for us by John, statements that Jesus makes. And in each of these seven statements, what Jesus does is he takes the phrase, ego e me, which means I am in Greek.

which is a translation of the Hebrew name for God, what we know as the tetragrammatarm, the four-character name. Yodhe Vavhe, Yahweh, which means I am that I am. This is the name that God gave to Moses in Exodus 3.14. What Jesus does is he takes that translation, ego-i-mi, and then pairs it with seven different analogies to sort of unpack and reveal who he is.

So for example, he says, I am the bread of life here in chapter 6. In chapter 8, he says, I am the light of the world. In chapter 10, I am the gate. In chapter 10, again, he says, I am the good shepherd. In chapter 11, he will say, I am the resurrection and the life.

And in chapter 14, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then finally, in chapter 15, he says, I am the true vine.

Now in each of these analogies, I am plus analogy here, Jesus is revealing to us something profound about who he is. And today we come to the first of these. I am the bread of life.

Now the first thing we need to realize before we get started is that bread in our post-industrial West is very different than bread was in the agrarian first century world of Palestine. For example, several points of distinction. We eat a wide range of foods in our culture from all different places. We don't have any sort of staple diet here in America. But in the Palestinian world, their diet, at least in Galilee, was bread and fish.

What did you have today? I had bread and fish. And what are we having tomorrow? Bread and fish. And the day after that, bread and fish.

And no one complained. Occasionally you got some lamb in there, but it was always bread, bread, bread, and more bread.

Now we have all kinds of bread. You go to the grocery store and we have wheat bread, white bread, whole grain bread, 37 grain, 5 grain, 12 grain. We have gluten-free bread. We have flat bread, thick bread, crusty bread. We have really fresh bread.

We have all kinds of bread, right? And they had. Bread. Here it is. That's your option, you know.

When famine comes, our prices go up a little bit, but we just import bread, right? No big deal. They died. They died. That was it.

They did not have enough to sustain them.

So when Jesus comes along and says, I am the bread of life. In his first century agrarian world, this is a massive statement because bread equals life in the first century. Bread equals life, and if Jesus equals Bread, then Jesus equals life. I'm taking you back to your logic class with a little syllogism this morning. Do you see this?

If bread is about life and Jesus is the bread, then Jesus is. Life.

Now, in this passage we're going to look at this morning, we're going to see eight insights into what this means. into the life that Jesus offers us in himself.

So open your Bibles, if you will, to John chapter 6. We're going to look at verses 22 down to 71. Would you? Pray with me. as we open God's Word.

Father, we open your word because in it are the words of life. This is the bread of life, as it were. For man does not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And we pray that this bread would point us to the true bread.

Jesus Himself, the Word of God, made flesh. To save us and give life. to this world. Help us. Feast upon him today.

For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. John chapter 6 Verses 22 to 71. Just a quick refresher of where we are in the story.

Last week we saw that Jesus had gone over to the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. There he had fed the crowds, 5,000 men plus women and children, probably a great number, there in the wilderness. After he had done this, he removed himself, went up into the mountain by himself, made his disciples go across the lake to the western shores by themselves. Jesus later was walking on the water where he joined up with their boat, and they came together to Capernaum. Chapter 6, verse 22 picks up the tale.

On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

Now, just pause for a moment.

So here they are. The scene is pretty amazing. And here they are searching all over the place to try to find out where Jesus went. They finally catch up with him back in Capernaum after a bunch of searching. They find him, verse 59 will tell us, actually in the synagogue.

And so they have no idea how he got back to Capernaum. They've been looking for him everywhere. And so they ask, Rabbi, when did you get here?

Now, notice Jesus will not actually answer their question. He turns the focus of the conversation onto their motives. Verse 26. Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.

which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father has set his seal. He says, Look, you've spent all of this time trying to find me, you know, because you ate the bread, and now you want another meal.

Now this is again where cultural background is so important for us to understand. Because in the first century Galilee, as far as we know, and what we know of the era is pretty deep, the average family would spend 85% of their income on food. Just to eat, subsistence living.

So, it's not just here that Jesus has fed them a really good meal and they want more for their bellies. They see in Jesus an opportunity. I mean, if he can make bread and fish multiply, if he can pull this off and do this every day, this is a turning point in their fortunes. They can keep 85% of their income. They can live in prosperity, not just provision, but prosperity.

And Jesus is the key to making this happen. That's why they've been searching for him all morning. They want more of this kind of stuff from Jesus. And that's why Jesus responds in verse 27 and says, Do not work for the food that perishes. But for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

From him the Father, God the Father, has set his seal. Jesus is saying, look, I can give you even better food than what I gave you yesterday. Yesterday's bread was awesome, right? But it's going to perish. I mean, even the leftovers are stale at this point, but I have food for you that endures.

That will give you not just daily provision, but will give you lifelong, eternal, everlasting. Life and sustenance. And this, friends, is the first insight. is that life in Jesus is spiritual. and eternal.

Life in Jesus is spiritual and eternal. Friends, as human beings, we are both physical and spiritual beings, aren't we? We are made from the dust, physical, and we have been breathed into us the breath of God's Spirit.

So, unlike the animals who are purely physical beings, and unlike the angels who are purely spiritual beings. Those who are made in God's image, human beings, are both, both physical and spiritual at once. We are the kind of amphibians, if you will, who live on the land of the physical but swim in the water of the spiritual as well. We are alive to both realities. And just as we have an appetite for food that sustains our lives in the physical realm.

We also have an appetite for food that sustains us in the spiritual realm. And just like Jesus has provided bread for this people to sustain their physical life, he now offers to them a bread of another kind that will sustain them in their spiritual lives. Jesus says, look. I don't want you working for the wrong kind of bread here. When it comes to me, what I gave you yesterday is the least of what I can offer you.

You're asking for far too small a thing. You're working, laboring after too small a thing and searching all over to try to find me. What you really want is you need me because I have bread that's even better than that. There's a fuller, greater, abundant, everlasting life that I can sustain you with this bread.

Now they're interested. But they fixate on one of the words that Jesus says here, and that's the word work. He says, do not work. For the food that perishes. Verse 28.

They said to him, What must we do to be doing the works? of God. They say, listen, this food that you're offering that endures to eternal life, it sounds good. But what do we have to do to get it? Verse 29, Jesus answered them.

This is the work of God. that you believe in him. whom he has Scent.

So, what does God require, friends? What does he say? Faith. Trust. Belief.

Not in the abstract. But in a person, in Jesus himself. And eternal life, it turns out, doesn't come from working A religious effort. but by believing. By faith.

So in verse thirty, they say to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? And then they give him a little nudge in the right direction. Jesus, this is the kind of thing that we would find convincing. Verse 31, our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven.

To eat. You say, wait a minute. Didn't Jesus just give them bread in the wilderness? Didn't he just feed them? I mean, what do they want more than that?

Ah, yes, yes. But the manna, remember, the manna was a daily provision from God. If you look at Exodus 16 or Deuteronomy 8, you will find that God gave manna to the people of Israel in the wilderness every single day except for Sabbath. It was a perpetual, unending supply of manna, of bread from heaven. They want their 85% pay raise, friends.

Look at this. Verse 32. Then Jesus 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.

Now, Jesus clarifies for them here: listen, the manna that the fathers received in the wilderness was not from Moses, it was from God Himself. And now, God is giving true bread from heaven. He's, again, a different kind of bread, a truer and greater bread from heaven, and it is he. It is a person who comes down and gives life. To the world, not just to the Jews, but now to the world.

Verse thirty-four. Then they said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of the bread. of life. I am the bread of life.

Look no further. I am the bread of life.

I have come down from heaven. I am this gift that my Father has given, and I am here with a gift of my own to give life. to the world in this Life will be yours. Not by working. for the food.

But by believing. and receiving. The second insight we see here, friends, is that life in Jesus comes by grace. Through faith, in Christ. Life in Jesus comes by grace through faith in Christ.

Don't you see this this moment right here is John's equivalent of Paul's famous statement in Romans 3, verses 21 to 22. But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law. The righteousness of God through faith. in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Now Jesus goes further here. Verse 35 continues, but 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.

Now, I don't know about you, but this sort of reminds me of another conversation that Jesus had back in John chapter 4. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus is speaking with the woman at the well, and he says, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give to him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal. Life.

And this is our third insight, friends: is that life in Jesus offers lasting satisfaction. Life in Jesus offers lasting satisfaction. Jesus is saying that, listen, the life that I am offering to you in myself is one that is deeply and eternally satisfying. That the hunger and thirst of your souls is pointing ultimately to me and I can supply, I can answer that longing, I can satisfy your souls. Saint Augustine said this famously when he said, Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest.

In The And Jesus is saying, I am. All that your soul is restless for And if you will come to me. If you will believe in me. I am all the life you will ever need for all. Eternity.

Now, not surprisingly, they're a bit skeptical. And so Jesus continues, verse 36. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will. but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me. that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me. but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father. That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. Dang. Jesus says, look, I am all the life you'll ever need.

For all eternity. Why? Because everyone the Father gives to me will come to me. And everyone who looks on the sun and believes, they will have eternal life. Right here, right now, they will be spiritually alive in me.

But not only that, I will never cast them out. I will hold on to them. Forever, all the days of their life. I will keep them safe in my. Love.

And even after they die, I will keep them forever. Because I will raise them up at the last day, at the resurrection, at the end of time. I will call them into resurrection. Life.

And this is our fourth insight, friends, that life in Jesus is as durable as He is faithful. Life in Jesus is as durable as he is faithful. The reason Jesus is all the life will ever need for all of eternity is that Jesus is faithful both now and all the days of our life and then forevermore. This is the will of his Father. And the Son is faithful to the very end of time and unto all Eternity.

Now, the audacity of these claims is not missed by his fellow Jews. And so in verse 41, the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I came down from heaven? Look, we know this guy.

We know his. Family, there are friends and neighbors. He grew up right down the street. How can he say he's come from heaven? Come on.

Verse 43, Jesus answered them. Do not grumble amongst yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets.

And they all will be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God. He has seen The Father. Jesus says, look.

The only way this is ever going to make sense to you The only way you're ever going to come to me and actually believe in me is if my father draws you. to me. You have to be taught by God. This is an allusion here to Isaiah 54, verse 13. Which is all full of new covenants.

Promises.

Now, our fifth insight is this: life in Jesus requires a divinely transformed heart. Hard. Life in Jesus requires a divinely transformed life. Heart. Friends, this is hard teaching, but the Bible is crystal clear here.

Jesus does not stutter. that apart from him we are spiritually dead. That we are blinded to the truth, and it takes God's enlivening, transforming, animating, awakening work in our souls to allow us then to have faith and trust. in His Son, in Jesus. No one comes to the son unless the father draws him.

In other words, we must be taught by God. The scriptures are clear that even faith itself is a gift of God. It is not of our own.

So it is the father, don't you see, who draws out the appetite. for life in his Son. God gives us that appetite. It is the Father who then draws us with that appetite to come to His Son. and believe in him.

Verse forty-seven. Jesus says, truly, truly I say to you, Whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven.

so that one may eat of it. and not die. I am the living bread. that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

Forever. and the bread that I will give for the life of the world. is my flash. He says, look, the manna was an amazing provision from God, wasn't it? It was God's grace to them, and it came and sustained their life day by day, but it was ever only bread.

It wasn't enough to sustain them unto eternal life. Eventually, they died. But this bread This life in Jesus is different. The sixth insight we see here is that life in Jesus is death defying. and eternal.

Life in Jesus is death-defying and eternal. Verse 50 says: The one who eats of it will live and not die. For this is the living body. Bread, and if anyone eats this bread, verse 51, he will live. Forever.

Now Jesus presses this analogy even further. He says, the bread that I give for the life of the world is my. Flesh. Verse 52, then the Jews disputed amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on 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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me.

and I in him. As the living Father sent me, And I live because of the Father.

So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live for Ever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.

Now, at first blush, these comments here, this invitation from Jesus, sounds a bit cannibalistic, doesn't it? Um We have to remember we're firmly in the world of analogy here. And these analogies are not that totally foreign to us. I mean, we say things like, boy, you know, I really devoured that book, or we talk about swallowing our pride, or we chew over an idea, or we eat our own words. But to say what Jesus does here, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you, this really is unsettling language.

What does it mean? to eat my flesh and drink my blood. What do you mean, Jesus?

Well, it's interesting. This verse 654 is exactly parallel. Two six five. 40. earlier in the chapter.

So this 654 reads, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. If you go back up to verse 40, if you look up there with me, Jesus says there: everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him. should have eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. Do you notice that the second part is exactly parallel in both verses? And so the comments leading into it, the if part of the statement, helps us to clarify the meaning.

So to eat my flesh and drink my blood is parallel to looking on the sun and believing in Him.

So, what this means is that to eat his flesh and drink his blood is to have an all-consuming embrace and trust in the person. of Jesus. But why this ghastly analogy? I mean, why go this far with it? Why not just stick with bread?

I'm bread, eat the bread. Why do you have to make it flesh and blood, Jesus?

Well, of course we know where he's going with this, don't we? This is all foreshadowing the cross. where Jesus' body will be broken. Right? The bread.

You broke the bread and said, This is my. body broken for you. This is my blood that's poured out for you. For the new covenant in my blood. That Jesus will die in our place and for our sake He will exchange His life For hours.

He will lay down his life to save the world, to give life to the world, and he will rise again on the third day. And so it is an invitation to look at him. And believe in him. To have an all-consuming embrace of who He is for us. That we might be forgiven and set free and made alive now and forever in Jesus Christ.

And I don't know if you realize this, friends, but whenever you eat, something has to die so you can live. Did you realize that? If you go to McDonald's and you get a hamburger or something, the cow dies so that you would live. And you get a chicken sandwich. The chicken died so that you might live.

You get a fish filet. The fish died so that you might. live even if you have the impossible patty, right? Even then, the plants have to die.

So that you might Live. And so, friends, don't you see the analogy, the metaphor is working on all of these different levels. Our physical life is sustained by consuming the life of another. That is sacrificed so that we might live. And the same principle is true on the spiritual plane: that our spiritual life is sustained by consuming the life of another, that is sacrificed in order that we might live.

And the seventh insight here, friends, is that life in Jesus is offered in his all-consuming sacrifice. Life in Jesus is offered in his all-consuming Sacrifice, this is my body. Broken for you. This is my blood. poured out.

For you. As the living Father sent me. And I live because of the Father.

So whoever feeds on me He will also live because It's a giant chain of life. from God the Father through Jesus. Two. Uh Come. Look.

Believe. Eight. And laugh. Verse sixty. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying.

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling, about this said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.

The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe. And who it was who would betray him. And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.

Verse 66: After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed. and have come to know.

that you are. the Holy One of God. And Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you the twelve? And yet One of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

For he, one of the twelve, was going to betray. Hemph. In many ways, this teaching of Jesus becomes the parting of the ways. Those who are after a meal and didn't get it, they leave. Those who couldn't believe these statements or were offended by them, they head off.

Even in the broader contingency of disciples, many of them turn aside and no longer follow Jesus. And even in the 12, the faithful 12 who remain. One of those will eventually betray. Jesus. And now why is this so controversial?

Why is the teaching of Jesus so difficult? Why is it so polarizing?

Well, the last insight here is that life in Jesus is humbling. Life in Jesus is humbling. Friends, if Jesus alone is our life, And the only way we can have him is by grace through faith. In Christ alone, as the Father draws us to trust in His all-consuming sacrifice on our behalf. Then a number of humbling realities set in immediately.

The first is that we are dead apart from Jesus. That we all have a spiritual ache, a longing, a hole inside, and it's not just that we're missing a piece for our souls, it's that something in us is dead. And we're spiritually dead on the inside. And the next humbling reality is that we cannot give life to ourselves. No matter how hard we try, no matter how much we believe in ourselves, or love ourselves, or accept ourselves, or express ourselves, we can never give ourselves the spiritual life that we need.

We can never. Bring ourselves to life. We were meant to draw life from another. It's simply the way we were designed. The third humbling reality is that all the life work that we do.

ultimately perishes. We sit down. We spend a lot of effort trying to build a life for ourselves, don't we? Make a life for ourselves, just like the Galileans. They were working really hard to work for their provision and prosperity.

And Jesus said, don't work for that. Don't work for the food that's going to perish. Work for the food that endures to eternal life. Life.

Friends, all the life that we rely on, all the things we think give us life and make life worth living, ultimately we can't take any of that with us. That the eternal life that we need is found in Jesus alone. And what good is it, as Jesus will say, for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? The fourth humbling reality is that even our religious efforts are useless. Even our religious efforts are useless.

Remember, they asked him, what must we do to do the works of God? In other words, we want life, but we want it on our terms. We want to be the ones who earn that life. We want to work our way into the blessings and life of God.

So just tell us what to do and we'll do it. Jesus says it doesn't work that way. The only way you get this life is it's a gift. You have to believe. and receive it.

Because the fifth humbling reality is that life is found in Jesus. Alone. Life is found in Jesus. alone, which means, friends, that the only way we get it is when we come empty. and desperate.

and helpless and needy. and impoverished, and famished, and parched. The only way we experience and receive the fullness of the life of Jesus is when we bring Him the emptiness of our own lives. And that's why so many people turn aside and no longer follow Jesus. I mean, this teaching is just honestly, it's too humbling.

It's too invasive. It's too revealing. It's too penetrating. Huh. It's too hard to swallow.

But Peter had it right, didn't he? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed. And have come to know.

that you are. The holy One. of God. And so friends, the takeaway is very simple. Jesus Yes.

Life.

Jesus is Life is he your life? Is it your life? Come, look, believe. Eat and live. Blessed are those.

who hunger and thirst for righteousness. for they will be satisfied. Father, help us look to Jesus. Help us bring our emptiness. our desperateness, our famishedness.

Our impoverishment. We come empty-handed to you. and ask that you would be our life. Our abundant, eternal, everlasting, all-satisfying, all-consuming life. beyond the walls of the world.

That Christ would be Everything in us. That what Paul says in Galatians would be true, that we have been crucified with Christ. and therefore we no longer live. But Christ lives in Us. This is the only way we live.

And it is what we most desperately need and so we come We look. We believe. And we eat the living Christ today. For it says in His name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Romans fifteen. Versus five. through seven. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

that together you may with one voice Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. For the glory. I've gone. On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with another message in a series he's calling Loved by Jesus, the Book of John.

we heard about the bread, insights into what Jesus meant when he said, I am the bread of life.

Next time, the Galilean. Jesus who is always surprising us. Doing the unexpected. The Moody Church Hour is a listener-supported ministry. We count on the ongoing financial support of listeners like you.

Together, we share solid biblical teaching. that transforms lives across America. around the world. You can call us at 1-800-200-0. 2155001.

That's 1-800-1. 2155001. Online, you'll find us at MoodyChurchHour.com. That's MoodyChurchHour.com. Or Write to us at Moody Church Media.

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