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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 15
9 September 2007
Jesus Is the Bread of Life
(Message delivered by Rev Hien
Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Sep 2, 2007)
Text:
John 6:35
Bread or
food is essential for our physical life, and because of this, we have to
work to eat our own bread (2 Thess 3:12). Due to Adam and Eve’s
disobedience, the curse of sin and death entered into this world, “In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the
ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return” (Gen 3:19). Having no food or drink for a few
days, we shall feel thirsty and hungry, and then weak, exhausted and
faint. When we have healthy food and drink, we shall feel refreshed,
strengthened, and satisfied. How about our spiritual life and spiritual
food? Many souls are hungry and thirsty and they do not understand why
they are not satisfied at all. Pursuing fame, power, positions, wealth,
human religions or life philosophies, fashions, materialism, worldly
values or pleasures, they still feel empty and learn that neither anyone
nor anything in this world can make them really satisfied for long.
Our Lord
Jesus Christ confirms, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me
shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”
(John 6:35). Are your soul and mine really satisfied in the Lord and
never hungry or thirsty for anything else? What does it mean when we say
that our Lord Jesus Christ is our Bread of Life?
Jesus Is the Bread of Life
Last year we
have learnt about our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our true Vine or our
true Source of spiritual Life, without whom we shall wither and die
spiritually as a branch is detached from the Vine. This reminds us to
humbly depend on our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word with our trust and
submission moment by moment so that we may have His life and bear much
fruit for His glory. We have just learnt about our Lord Jesus Christ,
the true Light of Life, without whom we shall be blinded and have no
spiritual discernment and guidance. This reminds us to walk humbly after
our Lord in His Light of truth, holiness, love, faith and Biblical
separation.
Today we are
learning about our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Bread of Life, without
whom we shall be dissatisfied, empty, hungry, thirsty, exhausted and
spiritually faint. May God open our spiritual eyes to see that our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, a living Divine Person, is our Bread of Life.
Having Him, obeying Him and keeping our living fellowship with Him, we
have His Bread and satisfaction. Truly, God’s Word is our spiritual
Bread, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4), but many just read
God’s Word without a living fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, so
they still feel hungry and thirsty. Our Lord Jesus is the Word of life
and His name is called “The Word of God” (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1;
Rev 19:13), and we do need Him to open our understanding so that we may
“understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45) and be edified,
nurtured, strengthened and satisfied. Without sincere dependence on and
submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God’s Word,
many do not understand God’s Word properly and then misinterpret it and
mislead many others. Dear friends, we should be discerning and cautious
about unhealthy bread from books, journals and magazines, even modern
Bible versions, “Christian” websites, articles or commentaries which may
contain the poison of wrong doctrines or human ideas, casting doubt on
God’s Word by arrogant textual criticism which harms our spiritual life
and destroys our holy faith. The living truth in the past, present and
forever is still the same: our Lord Jesus Christ is our Life, our Light,
our Bread of life, and our All. The more we know Him, the more we
appreciate Him, love Him, trust in Him, depend on Him and submit to Him
and His Word. May God help us regard all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How to Be Spiritually Fed and Satisfied
Our Lord
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never
hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
Coming to Jesus with Proper Motives and
Purposes: Our Lord
Jesus’ motives and purposes in His life and ministry are to bear witness
of the truth, to glorify His Father, to do His Father’s will, and to
fulfill His Father’s work. Our Lord says, “For I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me”
(John 6:38), and “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4), and “To this
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should
bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my
voice” (John 18:37). Then, to be fed and satisfied, you and I must
have the same motives and purposes in our lives and ministry. There is
no other way.
Our Lord
Jesus, with His real human body like yours and mine, was hungry after
His fast for forty days and forty nights, but He did not do the Devil’s
will, challenging and tempting Him to turn stones into bread for His
physical need even though He was able to perform miracles as the
almighty God! Here in John chapter 6, we learn that our Lord Jesus
performed a miracle of feeding 5,000 men besides women and children with
five loaves of bread and two fishes from a young boy. Our Lord Jesus did
His Father’s will and work to glorify His Father. The next day, the
multitude “also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for
Jesus” (v 24) and found the Lord Jesus, but their motive was only
for material blessing, not the Lord Himself as their Messiah. Our Lord
Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because
ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were
filled” (v 26). Many nowadays are also seeking the Lord for material
blessings such as health, wealth, and salvation without their repentance
or submission. No wonder, they will never be spiritually satisfied.
We shall
humble ourselves and appreciate God’s grace and mercy more when we
understand that coming to the Lord Jesus Himself for His own sake and
Divine value is by God’s gracious work alone. Although our Lord Jesus
always welcomes anyone who comes to Him with His open arms, “him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (v 37), human beings with
their rebellious and sinful hearts cannot come to the Lord in full
submission. Our Lord Jesus confirms, “All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me” (v 37), and “No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him” (v 44), and “Every man
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto
me” (v 45), and “no man can come unto me, except it were given
unto him of my Father” (v 65).
Many church
leaders nowadays may boast of their clever leadership and worldly
methods of “church growth” with big membership, but how many in the
congregation are sincerely and wholeheartedly submissive to the Lord
Jesus Christ and God’s Word? In John chapter 6, we see that not only did
the Jews murmur at the Lord Jesus (v 41), but many of His disciples also
murmured and went back, “Many therefore of his disciples…murmured at
it… From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no
more with him” (vv 60-61, 66). Our Lord Jesus did not run after them
nor lower His standard, asking His twelve disciples, “Will ye also go
away?” (v 67).
Dear
friends, it is God’s grace and strength alone that we may willingly,
humbly and submissively come to our Lord Jesus Christ, take up our
cross, and follow Him faithfully unto the end. Surely, when we do this
by God’s grace, we “shall never hunger.”
Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ:
Our Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “Labour not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed”
(v 27), and when they asked Him, “What shall we do, that we might
work the works of God?” (v 28), our Lord answered, “This is the
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (v 29). The
faith that we may sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with our
full submission must be also a gift from God, “For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Believing
in and submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ is believing in and
submitting to His Word as well, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). Many profess that they
believe in the Lord Jesus but question or criticise His Word! Their
faith is not from God. It is the saving faith with the fruit of sincere
trust and humble submission to the Lord and His Word that counts. The
Bible says that “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James
2:19), but they are not saved due to their pride and rebellion. How
about your faith and mine?
When our
Lord Jesus says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven:
if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world…
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and
I will raise him up at the last day… He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me” (vv 51, 54, 56, 57), He does not mean
eating His real flesh nor drinking His real blood, but He wants to tell
the truth that we do need Him and His bodily sacrifice for our sins, and
to accept Him for ourselves personally, “I do need and believe and
receive Jesus’ death for me, His blood for the constant cleansing of all
my sin and unrighteousness, and His resurrected Life for my spiritual
food, the Bread of Life. I live by Him and I cannot live without Him.”
Exactly, “he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” shows a
constant dependence on and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. No
wonder, the Jews rejected Him and many of His disciples could not accept
that they had to depend on Him and submit to Him, saying, “This is an
hard saying; who can hear it?” (v 60) and then “went back, and
walked no more with him” (v 66). However, the true faith will show
the sincere dependence on and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Word. When being asked if they would go away, Peter said to Jesus,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And
we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God” (vv 68-69). Dear friends, when we surely believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and His Word with our dependence and submission, we
“shall never thirst.”
Applying this Truth in Our Lives:
Since our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our Bread of Life, then
we should not do anything alone by ourselves without Him and outside of
His will or Word. After our Lord Jesus had talked with the Samaritan
woman, His disciples came back and offered Him some food to eat, our
Lord said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to
finish his work” (John 4:34) although He was physically thirsty and
hungry at that time. The more we do God’s will, the more we are fed and
strengthened and satisfied spiritually. We can thank God in all things
because we can come to the Lord Jesus Christ anytime and everywhere,
praying to Him in our hearts for strength and guidance and blessings.
Whatever we do, whether cleaning, cooking, washing, studying or
preaching, teaching, tracting, writing, singing, or even fighting
against Satan, sin, selfishness, worldliness, etc., we can ask the Lord
to do the work with us according to His will, His Word and His way, and
we shall surely be fed, strengthened and satisfied. “Only rebel not
ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they
are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is
with us: fear them not” (Num 14:9). The more we fight and overcome
the enemies, the more we are strengthened and fed and satisfied.
Conclusion
Dear friends, we cannot be
physical healthy and strengthened without healthy food. How much more
for our spiritual life! Many souls are fed with “junk food” or
“poisonous food,” and as a result, they feel dissatisfied, empty, weak,
sick, or faint. They are not strong enough to resist and overcome sins,
Satan, temptations, selfishness or worldliness. May God open our eyes
to see that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His Word are our true
spiritual food. To be fed, strengthened and satisfied you and I must
come to the Lord and His Word and believe in Him and His Word with our
full dependence and humble submission. Doing our own will or doing
anything alone by ourselves we shall never be satisfied. May the Lord
help us maintain a living fellowship with Him in His Light, wait upon
Him, look unto Him, come unto Him, trust in Him and do everything with
Him according to His will, Word and way, and for His glory alone so that
we shall be satisfied. May God help us be discerning and cautious so
that we may not feed ourselves and others with anything else except the
Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, the true Bread of Life. Amen.
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