Thank you for reading the sermon today. I am glad that you have taken the time to read the blog, and I hope that you are all having a very good week.
For several weeks now, we've been studying the names and titles of Jesus found throughout the Scriptures. In today's study, I want us to focus on a title that Jesus gave to Himself. In John 6:35 Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty."
First off, let's look at the overall context surrounding this statement. There is one miracle of Jesus found in all four Gospels. That miracle is the feeding of the 5,000. In John 6, Jesus has performed this miracle. The multitude has been feed, and there is more left over for the disciples to gather up. Jesus has decided to go over to the other side of the lake, and the multitudes are following. They wanted Jesus to declare Himself to be the king and do more great miracles. When Jesus told them what He had to say, it would result in many leaving and not following Him anymore.
Jesus said that He was and is the bread of life. He is the bread that has come down from Heaven. Jesus came into this world in order to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He came to bring light and to bring salvation. He came to bring abundant life now, and eternal life with Him for all who believe.
No one can survive physically if they don't eat something. Some people go on hunger strikes or suffer from famines, and they live for awhile without anything or much to eat. However, after a time, if a person or animal doesn't eat they will perish.
Spiritually, the same principle applies. Without the life that comes from knowing Jesus residing within our spirit, we are dead in our trespasses and sins as the Bible declares. No one can be spiritually alive apart from a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When a person places their faith and trust in Jesus, that person becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. All the old has passed away, and everything becomes new. We have passed from death to life. We have moved out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light.
When we come to Jesus and trust in Him as Savior and Lord an exchange takes place. Jesus removes our sins from us and He then imputes His righteousness to us. The Bible says that He who did not know sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
In order to be alive spiritually, one must come to trust in the Lord Jesus. After we have placed our faith in Jesus and accepted Him as Lord, we are sustained by the presence of the Lord in our lives. We will be spiritually weak if we do not abide in Jesus and allow Him to provide us with His spiritual sustenance.
We allow the Lord Jesus to sustain us by doing His will and following Him. He sustains us by His presence through prayer and meditation. We also receive spiritual sustenance through the sacraments such as Holy Communion.
At the time of the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and said this bread represents my body broken for you. This cup represents My blood shed for you. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are remembering what Jesus did for us when He sacrificed Himself upon the cross of Calvary.
Jesus would go on to say in John 6:53, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you." Jesus was saying that believing in Him and accepting Him was the only way of salvation.
The people did not like hearing what Jesus had to say. Many people stopped following Jesus. In fact, Jesus asked His inner circle of disciples if they wanted to leave Him too. In verse 68 Peter said, "To whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life." There is no eternal life apart from Jesus who is the Holy One of God.
If you have not invited Jesus Christ into your life as Savior and Lord, I hope you will turn to the Bread of Life Jesus today. If you are a believer in Him, keep in communion with Him, and let Him sustain you and fill you with His love so that His love might flow through you into the lives of others. Amen.
Prayer Requests
Please continue to pray in regard to my health situation. I am recovering and doing better for which I thank the Lord.
Please pray for those in Morocco affected by the earthquake. Many have died and many need aid and help. Pray that the needs in that nation will be met.
Let us pray that the fires in Canada might be extinguished.
Continue to remember to pray for peace. Let us focus our prayers for peace this week on peace in Sudan.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let's pray for those in the nations of Eritrea and Vietnam. Pray that many will come to know Jesus.
Next week, I will post the verses on Monday. We are done with the first part of the book on the Minor Prophets. I will be posting the second half of the book in a couple of months. We will continue with our current sermon series next week. May God bless you all.
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