Jesus is the Bread of Life

Billy Graham mentioned in one of his sermons that a survey had been done in America and it showed that the one thing that Americans wanted more than anything else was eternal life. A few years later I saw a man come into college one day with a badge on that said, 'Lose weight now, ask me how.' He was working for a company that sells slimming aids and special powder to put in milk that helps people lose weight. Having seen his badge, 'Lose weight now, ask me how,' I decided to make my own badge, a simple, hand written cardboard badge that said, 'Ask me how to live forever.' I find that people in this country aren't really like Americans. Perhaps because they've had so little contact with Christian things, they find the idea of eternal life difficult to understand. My friends didn't know what I meant. One of them said, 'You can't live forever. One day you'll be dead.' The people in this story in the Bible don't find the idea of Jesus being the bread of life easy to understand. They talk about the manna that their forefathers ate in the desert. 'Moses gave them bread from Heaven to eat.' They laugh at Jesus and say, 'You're just a carpenter's son. How can you have come down from Heaven? You're just too ordinary.' Jesus says, 'Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, yet they died. But there is a bread from Heaven that a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' They laugh at him and say, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'

If you read the whole of John chapter 6 you will see that Jesus has just fed the five thousand the day before. The men are looking for him not because they are happy that he is healing people and doing miracles and not because they think he is the Messiah. They ate at the feeding of the five thousand and they are actually expecting him to do it again. Come on Jesus, here's a hamburger, let's see how many people we can feed with that. Maybe somebody can bring a chocolate doughnut and a big bag of fries and you can make five thousand of those. Jesus, you have got the ability to make large quantities of food come out of thin air. Maybe you should open a McDonalds. Jesus tells them, 'Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.'

So much of our time and energy is spent working for food that spoils. So much of life is concerned with the physical pleasures of this world. Many years ago, a member of our church owned a shop and had a sign made that said, 'Smoking satisfies.' Sister Winnifred came into the shop and asked, 'Do you believe smoking satisfies, or do you believe Jesus satisfies?' The shopkeeper removed the sign, even though it had cost a great deal of money. At that time the physical danger of smoking cigarettes wasn't well understood. We didn't know that cigarettes caused heart disease or cancer or that a quarter of people who smoke die a lot earlier than they usually would. But Christians still disliked smoking. It was a normal thing to do and most people did it, if we go back forty years. It costs an enormous amount of money, especially as people become hooked and need a cigarette twenty or forty times a day, and it is a sensual pleasure. While people in other countries die before their time because of malnutrition and not having enough to eat, people in Britain die from spending their money on things that they don't need, like cigarettes, excessive alcohol, and even food. One of the most common causes of death in this country is being overweight. That's something that the church don't often preach about. If we could dislike over eating as much as we dislike smoking and drinking, I think we would be healthier. Pursuing a career and getting promoted at work is fine as long as it is done to serve God. We should have the desire to do a job that is more useful and that uses our abilities more. Sometimes living on a low wage can be a struggle. If you really find it difficult to pay the bills it is all right to want a job with more money. But sometimes the desire to make more money becomes too strong, people get promoted to a position where they can pay all the bills, replace their old worn out car, buy a nice house and have money to spare and they are still not happy. They want to climb higher and higher, just to make more and more money, money for its own sake, maybe not even knowing what to do with it but still wanting more. They have no peace because peace comes from contentment. Peace comes from being content with what you have. They are working for the food that spoils, not working for the food that brings eternal life.

How can Jesus give us his body and his blood to eat? He did it by dying on the cross for us. When we take communion we break bread and drink wine and this symbolises Christ's death for us, that his body was broken and his blood was poured out so that we can be forgiven. Alec Maclennan was a gospel preacher twenty five years ago. He showed the Jesus film to a family of Vietnamese boat people. In those days we actually had film projectors because not many people had video recorders. A woman pointed at the big screen and asked, 'That man on the cross. What for?' Alec Maclennan replied, 'For you.' That man on the cross died for you. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.' John 3:16. Jesus died for the whosoever. Jesus died for you, whoever you are. If you had been the only sinner in the world who needed forgiveness, Jesus would have died for you. If there was only one burglar or one drug addict or one car thief in the world who needed to have their sins forgiven so they could go to Heaven, Jesus would have died for them. In 1995 Philip Lawrence was a headmaster at a school in London. He died saving the life of a boy from a gang who were attacking him. A few years later, the boy whose life he had saved went to prison for carrying a gun. A memorial garden at the school had been planted in memory of Philip Lawrence and it was constantly locked to stop it being vandalised. Would you die for someone who would go to prison? Would you give your life for a common criminal, in a school that is so violent and so disorderly that the memorial garden planted in your name would be vandalised? If that boy, who went to prison for carrying a gun, had been the only sinner in the world who needed forgiveness Jesus would have died for him. One of my friends said he couldn't become a Christian because he didn't feel worthy. I'm not asking you to feel worthy tonight. If you feel worthy tonight, don't waste your time. Jesus can't save worthy people. He saves sinners. If you think you're a dirty rotten sinner and you're on your way to Hell tonight, come to Jesus. That's the kind of unworthiness that Jesus accepts. You need to repent of your sin. Those who are forgiven much love much. Luke 7: 47. If you don't think you've ever done anything wrong, or maybe you think you have done wrong but you don't actually want to change, there is no way that Jesus can help you. Jesus didn't come for all the good, righteous, perfect, holy people in the world. He came for the worst sinners. The Bible says we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. There is no one who does what is righteous, not even one. You're a mass of corruption from your head to your foot. The wicked, selfish thoughts that you have in your heart. The hurtful and unkind things you say to other people. The things you have done that you wouldn't like done to you. How unworthy do you feel tonight? Unworthy enough to come to Jesus?