CROWN OF LIFE EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH  
Pastor John C. Schneidervin

13th Sunday After Pentecost August 18, 2002


Eat The Bread Of Life

1. Which Was Given For The World
2. Which Gives Eternal Life

John 6:47-58:

47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

Sermon:

Do you children recognize what I am holding in my hand? This is a piece of bread. What do we do with bread? We eat it, right? Do you children eat all of your bread? I have seen children who would not eat their bread, especially the crust. How many of you children have had your parents tell you, "Eat all your food. Don't waste it." My mother told me this, too, when I was a boy. My mother could not stand wasting food. She had lived through the Great Depression. She said in those days people were fortunate if they had a scrap of bread. Thus her rule was: Don't waste food. Eat what is set in front of you and be glad that you have it, for a there are a lot of people who are starving in the world who wish they had it. Jesus also taught us not to waste food. When he fed the five thousand and the four thousand, he had his disciples pick up the left leftovers--twelve and seven baskets respectively. 

Seeing parents permitting their children to throw out the food on their plates upsets me. I am disturbed whenever I see food being wasted. The summer before I started my studies at the seminary I worked at Continental Bakery, which produced the Wonder Bread and store brand breads you see on your grocery shelves. Each day I saw huge dumpsters filled with loaves of bread being thrown out. What a waste! It was good bread. The crust had simply gotten a little too dark in the oven. All that bread could have been given to the hungry. Wasting bread is a sin. 

Worse than that is wasting the Bread of Life that gives eternal life. So I urge you, "Eat The Bread Of Life." "Eat the bread of life!" What is the bread that gives life? Look at what Jesus said in verse 48: "I am the bread of life." So what is the bread of life? Jesus is. So I will write on the board, "Jesus is the Bread of Life." 

During the time of the Exodus when the Israelites were in the wilderness God gave them the bread from heaven, the manna, to sustain their lives. In verse 48 Jesus informs us that that manna or bread from heaven was a figure or type of himself. He further clarified that the manna, the bread from heaven, was a type of himself when he told the Jews in verses 49-51, "Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here (referring to himself) is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." The manna, or bread, which came from heaven sustained the lives of the Israelites for a while in the wilderness. They ate that bread from heaven, yet they died. They needed the bread of life which could give them life everlasting. 

Jesus is that true bread of life from heaven which gives everlasting life. Jesus, according to his divine nature as the Son of God, came down from heaven. He assumed our human nature and became man here on earth. He became one of us for the purpose of giving life everlasting in heaven and salvation from hell. What made it possible for Jesus to give everlasting life and salvation? Jesus explained in verse 51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." What enabled Jesus to give everlasting life and salvation? He gave the living bread, which was his flesh, his living body as the sacrifice for sins. On the cross he gave his body so how many people would have life everlasting? Jesus said he gave his flesh for the life of the world. The world is all people, correct? Even you and me. So I will write on the board: "Jesus gave his body to give life to us all."

 How do we obtain the everlasting life Jesus procured by giving his body on the cross into death? Look at what Jesus tells in verses 50, 51 and 53, "Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever . . . I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." So how do we obtain the everlasting life Jesus death procured for us? By eating the bread of life, his flesh and blood. What did Jesus mean that we should eat his flesh and blood? Don't misunderstand his meaning as did those Jews who originally heard him. Verse 52 tells us: "The Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' " Jesus did not mean that like cannibals we should eat his flesh and drink his blood. He made his meaning clear in verse 47 when he said: "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life." So how do we eat Jesus' body and blood? We eat them spiritually by faith. By faith we receive the body and blood of Jesus as the atoning sacrifice given for the sins of us all to give us everlasting life. We who believe that the man Jesus is the Son of God who came from heaven and gave his body as the sacrifice for the sins of all people have everlasting life. On the board I will therefore write: "Eating = Believing in Jesus." 

Jesus' words answer a most important question. The jailer at Philippi asked that all-important question, when he asked Paul and Silas: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Do you know the answer to this question? You need to know the answer, because each of us has the same basic need as that jailer did--eternal salvation and life. We need eternal salvation and life because we are sinners who have disobeyed God's commandments. The punishment we deserve for our sins is the tortures of hell. Thus, if we do not know the answer to the question of how to be saved, we are lost eternally. The answer Jesus gives is: Eat the Bread of Life. Believe in Jesus. Believe Jesus gave his body and blood as the sacrifice for your sins. Believe his having sacrificed himself for your sins gives you eternal life. Or, as Paul and Silas told the jailer: "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." So eat the Bread of Life. 

Faith in Jesus, the living Bread from heaven, is the only way to be saved. We cannot afford to waste this Bread of Life as the unbelievers do, who are perishing because of their unbelief. Jesus is offering us the Bread of Life, himself, for eternal life. So believe in him and be saved, for he is the Bread of Life which gives us eternal life. Jesus gives everlasting life to all who believe in him. He says in verse 54 and 58: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day . . . This is the bread that came down from heaven . . . he who feeds on this bread will live forever." Faith in Jesus gives everlasting life. Everlasting life is being in the presence of God to enjoy his heavenly blessings forever. Those who believe in Jesus will enjoy having their soul live with the Lord in heaven upon their deaths, as Jesus says here and also promised in John 11:25,26: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." 

Those who believe in Jesus will also enjoy having their bodies raised from the dead and reunited with their souls to live forever in heaven. This promise of eternal life through faith in Jesus is our comfort, hope, and confidence. I once had a conversation with a Christian woman whose health was failing. She knew it was only a matter of time before she died. By faith she said, "I am not afraid to die, for Jesus will take me. I could die any day. But then I will be with him." This woman by faith had eaten the Bread of Life. Her faith is a model for us to imitate. Through faith in Jesus we will live. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Now is not the time to waste this Bread as so many are doing. Now is the time to eat the Bread of Life and be saved.

Amen.