Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement is the Only Way to Heaven

Jewish literature celebrated God’s provision of manna for Israel in the desert. People expected the Messiah to perform a similar feat. The age of the Messiah would be an age of abundance, when God’s blessings would be poured out on Israel. In the following discourse, Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of these expectations. He said He was the Bread of Life. In contrast to popular belief, however, God’s provision of life through his Messiah entails substitutionary suffering. Jesus will have to “give his flesh for the life of the world,” and only those who “eat his flesh” and “drink his blood” will partake of God’s salvation blessings.¹ What did Jesus mean by these strong words? How do we apply His thoughts to our everyday life, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
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Coming to the Bread of Life is not a one-time affair. It is a continual coming. It is a continual accessing of all that Jesus is.

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Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
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Question: How has the Bread of Life sustained your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Jesus Infamous Bread of Life Statement

John 6:51–53 (NKJV) — 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

To grasp Jesus infamous ‘living Bread’ statement, you have to look at it in the context of the entire sixth chapter of John’s gospel.
I say ‘infamous’ because after Jesus preached this message, many of His disciples quit following Him.

John 6:60, 66 (NKJV) — 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”… 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

So, understanding these words is what we are focusing on in this podcast.

Jesus the Bread of Life and the Feeding of the Multitude

John 6:1–2 (NKJV) — 1 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.

Those thought to be wonder workers drew large followings in the ancient world, but most wonder workers in this period did not emphasize teaching over miracles, in contrast to Jesus (6:26–27).²

So, Jesus is compassionately healing people.
Miracles by the Spirit of God are happening and so this large crowd assembles to see what they can see.
Jesus saw this great crowd and was motivated by compassion for their physical needs and with that, He asked Philip this question.

John 6:5–7 (NKJV) — 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. 7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

If you read what follows down through verse fifteen, Jesus fed 5000 men besides woman and children with 12 baskets left over.
This account of Jesus feeding the multitudes is the only miracle besides the resurrection of Jesus that is recorded in every single gospel.
Lazarus raised from the dead is a huge miracle but John is the only gospel that records that.
The woman bent over for eighteen years is only recorded in Luke’s gospel.
So, there is something to this ‘feeding the multitude miracle’ that the Spirit of God wants to get over to us.
You know the story as you piece it together from all the gospel accounts.
Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw that the multitude had been with Him three days and hadn’t eaten anything.
If Jesus yearned over people who hadn’t eaten physically in three days, would you think that He would have some strong feeling over feeding people who hadn’t eaten spiritually in seven days?
You know some people the only Bible they get is what they hear from their Pastors on Sunday.
If you only ate one day a week physically, what kind of shape would you be in?
The crowd, elated at what Jesus did, rushed to declare Jesus as King.
You know, forget the fact that Herod was king, forget that the Roman government had it’s Emperor and that Judah had its proconsul.
No, ‘free meal’ Jesus is our choice, the crowd said.

John 6:14–15 (NKJV) — 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Now, here is where you know you have your priorities in order where God’s will is concerned.
They offered Jesus the top position in the nation because of His bread of life multiplying anointing.
They thought He could turn that on and on as He willed.
But, that’s not how the anointing works.
Jesus told us, in no uncertain terms how this anointing works.

John 14:10 (ESV) — 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Ignorant of spiritual gifts and their operation, the people try to force Jesus into politics.
Instead of capitalizing on the offer, Jesus turns them down and walks off.
Would you have done that if that were you?
Or would you have put on your rational reasoning hat and thought, ‘You know I probably could do more for the people if I had the ‘King’ position instead of a carpenter’s son position.’
But Jesus doesn’t go with those vibes because He knew what the will of God was for His life.
Here’s the point, you will never accomplish more in life doing your own will than doing God’s no matter how talented or opportunity driven you are.

One gentleman said, “To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge; to do the will of God is the greatest achievement.” Then he added, “The will of God is not always easy, but it is always right.” — Dr. Truett ³

Jesus did God’s will and it wasn’t easy but it was right.
He walked off from the promotion of man.
So, mark it down and don’t forget every opportunity, every open door is not God’s will.
You have to first know what His will is in order to be able to discern it.
And in the end, Jesus didn’t just help one nation, Israel, as King but He helped all the nations of the entire world from His position as carpenter’s son.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV) — 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

But, you know the crowd just wouldn’t let it go.
They determined to track down ‘free meal’ Jesus and push the argument.
A full belly is a powerful motivator.
In fact, that’s how wealth was measured on that day.
It was measured in this agricultural society by how much food you had on hand.

Genesis 13:2 (KJV) — 2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Cattle was the first item Abraham was very rich in.
T-bones trumped dollar bills on that day.
You can slaughter a bull and eat for a few months but you couldn’t eat silver and gold in that day.
There wasn’t a Wal-mart or a Costco to go shopping at for groceries.
So food was the new finance in 1st century Israel.
But, Jesus warned them then and us today about this idea of putting food first.

Matthew 6:31–33 (ESV) — 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

First is God’s Kingdom, first is God’s ways, first is God’s will, not a bowl of chili.

The Crowd Presses the Bread of Life on the Bread Issue

Jesus expresses this exact thought in verse twenty-five.

John 6:25–27 (ESV) — 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 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. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

The crowd was having none of this.
They kept pressing on; dinner time was just around the corner.
You know one thing about miracles, in general, is that they are never all-inclusive solutions.
They are starting point solutions.
Here’s what I mean by that.
One day Jesus healed a blind beggar in Mark ten.

Mark 10:46 (ESV) — 46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.

A beggar is a poor man looking for an answer.
Jesus gave him that answer when he restored his sight but here’s the thing, he still didn’t have food for dinner that day.
He had to go out and work for that.
So, the miracle of restoring this blind man’s sight was a starting point for his great need of food.
A single miracle is not an all-inclusive solution.
It gives you a starting point where you can lace up your shoe strings and make a go at life.
And so, the crowd pressures Jesus, with this thought: “If you are not going to perform another ‘feeding of the five-thousand’ miracle, what can we do to do what you do?
Here’s what they said.

John 6:28 (ESV) — 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

To which Jesus gives the response of the century.

John 6:29 (ESV) — 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

What is Jesus saying?
He is strongly stating that food is not number one: believing is number one, specifically, believing in Jesus.
This is nothing new; Jesus already preached this message.

Matthew 6:33 (ESV) — 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The food motivated crowd is still not getting what Jesus is saying.
Hunger is blocking their hearing.

John 6:30–34 (ESV) — 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

The crowd, of course, is stuck in the natural.
Jesus is speaking in the spiritual and so there is this disconnect.
Why did Jesus allow this divide to continue?
How come He didn’t tune in to the growling stomachs of the crowd?
Because the spiritual produces the natural, it is always first.
What eating is to the body, believing is to the spirit of a man.
It was the spiritual which brought the natural into existence in the first chapters of Genesis.
The crowd had bread in their ears.
Jesus wanted the bread to be in their hearts.
And He put this to the crowd in four different ways.

Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement

John 6:51 (ESV) — 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 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. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

This is a shocking ‘all the way down to your toes’ pronouncement.
Shocking? Yes, downright cringing-ly cannibalistic if you are hearing only with a natural set of ears.
Jesus said, ‘You have to feed on my flesh.’
If you are stuck in the natural, your first thought is ‘ehhh, nasty.’
Some commentators have tried to explain this as an attempt by Jesus to teach on communion.
It’s nothing of the sort.
This is a commitment statement.
If you want to have real life, you have to Jesus in you.
Real life comes via ‘who is in you’, Jesus, not ‘what is in you,’ a loaf of bread.
You have to think higher in your person than your stomach.
Move up from your stomach to your spirit man and you’ll clearly know what Jesus was saying that day to this crowd of physically hungry people.
A.W. Tozer said it this way and with that thought, here’s the quote of the day.

I would not give a nickel for the Christian that has no proof of his salvation except he quotes a text. The text will lead you to the fountain, but if you plunge into the fountain and come up wet, I will know you are a Christian. But if you stand on the edge of the water and quote a text, I am not sure. The devil can quote text and is not an unbeliever, do not think he is. The devil believes, all right, and the result is he trembles with fear. But he is not saved and never will be saved. Many people believe texts, but the text never got inside them. Is Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, actually inside you? Have you been initiated into that other world, that spiritual world, the kingdom of God? Are you in that kingdom?

Other ‘Bread of Life in You’ Analogies

Jesus ‘eating my flesh’ declaration is simply another analogy in a string of analogies for a committed saved life.
Look back, for example, at verse thirty-five.

John 6:35 (ESV) — 35 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.

Did you hear that? Whoever ‘comes to me’.
So, coming to Jesus is another way of saying the same thing as eating His flesh.
Drop down now to verse forty.

John 6:40 (ESV) — 40 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.”

Did you hear that? Whoever ‘looks on the Son’.
So, ‘coming to Jesus’, ‘looking on the Son’ and ‘eating His flesh’ are equivalent thoughts.
Now, down some more to verse forty-five.

John 6:45 (ESV) — 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

Did you hear that? Whoever ‘has heard and learned’.
So, ‘coming to Jesus’, ‘looking on the Son’ and ‘eating His flesh’ and ‘hearing and learning’ from the Father are all the same speech.
It’s like Jesus kept phrasing and rephrasing the salvation message and lifestyle.
He said it so many ways in John six, you have to have help to not see it.
And, that is what you can’t hear Jesus words in the natural.
If you only look at Jesus words with natural eyes, you will not see real deal spirituality.

John 6:60–63 (ESV) — 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

The Back-Slidden Followers of the Bread of Life

The natural pulled these disciples of Jesus off course.
It led them to abandon their first love.
You cannot follow Jesus from the natural.
The gulf is as big as the one between the rich man and Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom.
Natural thinking doesn’t produce spiritual realities.

John 6:66 (ESV) — 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

With that thought, here’s the closing illustration of the day.
One poor soul gave Jesus a letter of resignation.
It went something like this:

Dear Lord: Kindly accept this as my resignation, due to the reasons listed below. 1. I am no longer interested in winning souls. 2. Those who look to me for spiritual guidance can get it from someone else. 3. The few who are grateful for my efforts don’t mean a thing. 4. My critics are ready to move in, and I want to show them I’m not too old and feeble to move out. 5. I’m not interested in church. I hate crowds. 6. The will of the Lord is no longer first with me. — Cordially, A. Backslider⁴

After the crowd left Him, Jesus asked them this question and it’s a question you must also answer.

John 6:67–69 (ESV) — 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Do you believe Jesus is the Holy Bread of Life?
Do you believe He has the Words of eternal life, that is that there are no other words that lead life like the words ‘unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you have no life in you?
You guys have a great God-week and we’ll see you again for another edition of Light on Life.

Are You Hungering after God?

References:

Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: John, Acts., vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 67. ↩
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Jn 6:1–2. ↩
Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 124. ↩
Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book: Over 4,500 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 24. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement is the Only Way to Heaven

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 27

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Question: How has the Bread of Life sustained your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Jesus Infamous Bread of Life Statement

Jesus the Bread of Life and the Feeding of the Multitude

The Crowd Presses the Bread of Life on the Bread Issue

Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement

Other ‘Bread of Life in You’ Analogies

The Back-Slidden Followers of the Bread of Life

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Question: How has the Bread of Life sustained your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Jesus Infamous Bread of Life Statement

Jesus the Bread of Life and the Feeding of the Multitude

The Crowd Presses the Bread of Life on the Bread Issue

Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement

Other ‘Bread of Life in You’ Analogies

The Back-Slidden Followers of the Bread of Life

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