LANGUAGE:
I Am Sayings Of Jesus
I Am The Bread Of Life[i]
(Exodus 3:13-15; John 6:22-35)
I am learning that in the aging process, I no longer measure time by years. Time is now measured in months and weeks. I remember on the farm moving irrigation pipes, time seemed to stand still. Then there was the summer I worked on a ‘grass seed farm’ in Oregon riding a mower all day long. The sun seemed to drag across the skies, slower than a snail. But something has happened over the years. As I have aged, I’m learning that time now is measured by the speed of a cheetah after its prey.
In 77 days we’ll be celebrating the greatest event in history. It seems to be a blip in our life journey in comparison to the way we celebrate Christmas. And yet the earthquakes that shook the world at Jesus’ death and resurrection still send ripples through time and space.
Some of you have asked about the series I started before Christmas entitled The Lies We Tell and Believe. I haven’t forgotten. But in light of our coming celebration of the greatest event ever to occur on the face of this earth, I thought it would be good to deviate and center our thoughts on the person of Jesus as Easter approaches.
Let me lay out for us two verses that set the stage for me.
I wonder, how well do we know our God? Or perhaps better, how well do we know God’s name? The Bible tells us that knowing God’s name brings trust, confidence, strength, and a motivation to action.
Let’s take a moment to ask God to guide our thoughts. -- Heavenly Father, this morning we turn our thoughts on Your name. Forgive us for our flippantness in our usage of Your Name. There is no one like You! As Your word says, You are the great I AM, the Chief Cornerstone of our faith. As we look towards Easter, help us to get a grip on Your name that we might better trust You, display strength, and be motivated to action. In Jesus’ name we ask, Amen.
According to Psalm 9 there is a direct relationship between knowing God’s name and trusting in Him. And according to Daniel 11, to the degree we know God, to that degree we display strength and take action. That raises a question for us: How well do we know God?
Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote a song that goes as follows:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; there’s just something about that name.
Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain;
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all Heaven and earth proclaim
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away,
But there’s something about that name.[iii]
Indeed, there is something special about knowing the name of Jesus. In Matthew 16 Jesus takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi and asks them, Who do people say that I am?[iv] It’s an intriguing question.
They have been listening to the crowds: “Some say John the Baptist” (that’s what Herod thought);[v] “others say Elijah” (taken from Malachi 4);[vi] “and still others, Jeremiah” (because some thought he was the prophet referred to by Moses in Deuteronomy 18)[vii], and then there were others who had no specific opinion other than Jesus was “one of the prophets.
Jesus then changes the question, Who do you say I am? The question was meant to cut to the inner soul of the disciples. When you think about it, it was an interesting question. What’s interesting is that in the GK the pronoun ‘you’ is emphatic, placed at the first of the sentence. It is as if Jesus was asking, “You guys have been with me from the beginning, so who do you say that I am?”
It’s a significant question, particularly in light of what the Psalmist wrote: Those who know Your name will put their trust in You. And what Daniel said, the people who know their God will display strength and take action. So knowing God’s name is really important. So the question for the disciples and for us: how well do we know His name?
We get a sense of the wonder of God’s Name in Exodus chap 3. It centers around Moses’ personal encounter with God in the desert region of Mt Sinai watching over his father-in-laws sheep. It was a strange place to meet God. It was a dry hot thirsty parched land. Dead sage bushes would often burst into flame from the heat. Moses was use to seeing sage bush fires. But there was a bush that caught fire that surprised him. The text says he marveled at what he saw, because the bush didn’t burn up?” (Exodus 3:3 (MSG))
So approaches to investigate. And out of that flaming bush God speaks to him. First, telling him to take his shoes off because he was walking on holy ground. Then He gives Moses his assignment, return to Egypt and set Israel free from slavery. This was no small assignment because Egypt was a major political and military powerhouse of that day.
Moses objects, “What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
God responds, I will be with you.
Moses pushes back: Who shall I tell them has sent me? What is Your name?
God answers forcefully: I AM WHO I AM. You shall tell them I AM has sent me to you. And that is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. I don’t want us to miss what is happening here. God was giving Moses significant insight about Himself that He had not given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know this because of what God tells Moses in Exodus chap 6, vs3(ESV) 3I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name ‘the I AM WHO I AM, I did not make myself known to them. (emphasis added).
The name I AM WHO I AM in a nut-shell means, the ever present existing one. God’s name carries His identity, His fame, His reputation.
So know this, His name I AM WHO I AM, identifies His very being, it speaks of what sets Him apart from everyone else, what makes Him to be God unlike any god, what makes Him distinct, different, unique, separate from all others, and what He does for you and for all.[ix] Understand, knowing God’s name is central to our faith. It’s our heritage, it’s our authority, it’s our call, it’s our vision, and it’s our hope. It’s our very essence of life. We cannot exist outside of His Name, and we must sear that into our very conscience.[x]
What does it mean when you ask your God, Who are you? and He answers, I AM WHO I AM? I am hoping you can feel this morning and the days following how important it is to know the name of God. A.W. Tozer lays it out for us this way: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.[xi] There is no name that is more important to know.
In John’s gospel John records seven differing times where Jesus emphatically states ‘I Am’.[xii] His ‘I Am’ statements are meant to take us back to Exodus 3 where God discloses Himself to Moses as “I AM THAT I AM”, ‘the ever present existing One’. So in His I Am , Jesus is declaring that He is the ever present self-existing God who has come to us to fulfill the deep longings of the heart. [xiii]
In each of the seven I Am statements Jesus reveals something about His own nature and character that He wants us to know. As we consider each of these incredible I Am statements, we are challenged by the same question that Jesus asked His disciples: Who do you say that I am? In other words, do we really know who He is? Not that we know about Him, or even what other people might say about Him. But do we really truly know Him? Why is that important for us? Jesus answers that question in John 17:3 (ESV) this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Our eternal future hangs on this premise: Do you know Him?
Jesus’ first ‘I Am’ statement comes in John’s gospel, chap 6. The backdrop is the feeding of thousands with five barley loaves and two fish. The day following the miraculous picnic, the people were again hungry and decided that Jesus was useful. They saw Him as an automatic free food vending machine. So they came searching for Him. V26(MSG) When they found Him Jesus told them straight away, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.
v27(MSG) He then rebukes them. 27“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. … Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. For what He does is guaranteed by God the Father to last.”
V28(MSG) That caught the interest of the crowds, and so they ask, “Well then, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?”
V29(ESV) Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
V30, The crowd then gets a little testy, and challenges Jesus. If you want us to believe show us a miracle. What miracle will You perform? V31, 31Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. Just as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”[xv] The implication is plain: if Jesus be God’s deliverer, let him perform that sign![xiv]
Jesus corrects their faulty thinking in vs 32-33, you should know that it wasn’t Moses that gave you the bread. And quite frankly, the bread he gave wasn’t the true bread that gives life. … For the true bread of God that comes down out of heaven gives life to the world.[xvi] V34, they immediately responded, Lord, give us this bread!!![xvii]
V35(ESV), Jesus then tells them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.[xviii] The point Jesus was making was just like God sent manna in the wilderness to sustain the life of your forefathers, He has sent me into the world to give you life. And specifically to His disciples listening in, Serve me faithfully, and you will never lack what you need. I will be for you everything you need, even in the hour of suffering and death.[xix] But the people had a huge problem. They were so fixated on their physical hungries that they missed the beam of glory that flowed from Jesus when he fed them with 5 barley loves and two fish.[xx]
When you are hungry can you envision whether your hunger urges are physical or spiritual? When we can’t envision our spiritual hunger, we do strange things. Take the tribe of Ephraim in Hosea 12:1. He describes Ephraim as feeding on the wind and pursuing the east wind continually. The imagery of eating wind describes the people’s futile attempts to satisfy themselves with their own pleasures. Their pursuit of pleasures was like pursuing the wind, giving them no satisfaction.[xxi] Similarly, the crowds around Jesus were only interested in the experience of the pleasure of a full stomach without having to work for it for the rest of their lives. Their pleasure of a full belly blinded them to who was standing in their midst.
V41(GW) The Jews began grumbling because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came from heaven.” They entirely missed what Jesus was telling them. What He was telling them was, I AM THAT I AM is here who will sustainer your life.[xxii] Hebrews 1:3 (NASB95) He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature, and it is He who upholds all things by the word of His power.[xxiii]
Interestingly, if we back up to vs 27-29 where Jesus said, Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. The people logically ask, what is that work that endures to eternal life?
Jesus answers their question in v29, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.[xxiv] Jesus is not talking about not working, not providing for your family, quitting your jobs.[xxv] God made us with a spiritual craving. When we come to Jesus as the bread of life, our desires change, our agenda’s change, our perspectives change, our longings change, our hopes change. We experience a real turn around in our thoughts and motives. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB95) if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.[xxvi] … A new direction is given to those of us who do the work of God, namely believe on Him who is the bread of life. To believe on Him determines how we spend eternity.
What a moment that must have been. What they so desperately needed was standing right in front of them. John’s Gospel chap 1, v12, To all who would receive Him, who believed in His name, take Him into their soul, into their life, they will receive a full satisfying life.
But like their forefathers, they were to busying chasing the wind. Their problem was that their sinful nature changed their course, making contentment unreachable. And we have the same problem don’t we. Some of us are so busy in our pursuits that we have become deaf to the satisfying Word of Jesus.
In Matthew 6:21 Jesus stated it this way, Where your treasure is, there is where your heart will be also. When we come to Jesus as the bread of life, He becomes our center. He dominates our minds, our actions, and our relationships. John 1:14 (NASB95) John tells us that the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and . . . don’t miss this . . . we, as in the disciples, saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Don’t be like the tribe of Ephraim, chasing after the wind. Only Jesus can satisfy our deep hunger. In John 6 Jesus not only took care of their physical hunger, He offered to satisfy their spiritual hunger also.
There’s a song we use to sing that goes like this:
Jesus, be the centre, Be my source, be my light Jesus
Jesus, be the centre, Be my hope, be my song, Jesus
Be the fire in my heart, Be the wind in these sails
Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus
Jesus, be my vision, Be my path, be my guide, Jesus[xxvii]
Where are you seeking satisfaction from? Are you chasing after the world or are you energetically following Jesus? I challenge you to take some time to evaluate your own life and if necessary confess and reset your focus on Christ alone to satisfy you.
Psalm 9:10 (NASB95) Those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. When you eat of the bread of life you get eternal life. Do you know Him?
Let’s close in prayer. -- Almighty God, to whom all hearts are opened, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[i] I try to thoroughly cite all sources in my written sermon notes. But due to the extemporaneous nature of oral communication, delivery may occasionally contain material not fully cited or original with me. In such situations, the church nor I assert ownership to such material. The footnotes contain most of the resources that were used to prepare this sermon. Some additional resources:
[ii] Psalm 91:14 (NASB95) 14“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. Psalm 37:28 (NASB95) 28For the LORD loves justice And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. ; Psalm 94:14 (NASB95) 14For the LORD will not abandon His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance.
[iii] Bill and Gloria Gaither, There’s Something About That Name, https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/4672335/Bill+Gaither/ There's+Something+About+That+Name
[iv] Matthew 16:13–16 (NASB95) 13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ; Mark 8:27–29 (NASB95)27Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” 28They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” 29And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”; Luke 9:18–20 (NASB95)18And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” 19They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” 20And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
[v] Matthew 14:2 (NASB95) 2and Herod Antipas said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
[vi] Malachi 4:5 (NASB95) 5“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. Matthew 11:13–14 (NASB95) 13“For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14“And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.
[vii] Deuteronomy 18:15 (NASB95) 15“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-16-14.html#g
[viii] James 1:17 (NASB95) 17Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. Hebrews 13:8 (NASB95) 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
[ix] Kevin Golden, Why Is God’s Name Important? (Exodus 3), https://blog.cph.org/study/why-is-gods-name-important
[x] Psalm 89:35–37 (NASB95) 35“Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. 36“His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. 7“It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah. Psalm 60:6 (NASB95) 6God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth. Amos 4:2 (NASB95)2The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness, “Behold, the days are coming upon you When they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks.
[xi] A.W.Tozer, The Pursuit of God, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/tozer-vs-lewis-whats-the-most-important-thing-about-us/. https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/core-christian-beliefs/why-we-must-think-rightly-about-god.html It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.
[xii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching-series/the-call-to-i-am-a-five-part-lenten-series
[xiii] Hebrews 1:1–3 (NASB95) 1God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
[xiv] George R. Beasley-Murray, John, vol. 36, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1999), 91.
[xv] Psalm 78:24 (NASB95) 24He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven. ; Exodus 16:4 (NASB95) 4Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. V15When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. ; Nehemiah 9:15 (NASB95) 15“You provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger, You brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And You told them to enter in order to possess The land which You swore to give them. ; Psalm 105:40 (NASB95) 40They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
[xvi] John 4:40–42 (NASB95) 40So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of His word; 42and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” John 1:29 (NASB95) 29The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 1 John 4:14 (NASB95)14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
[xvii] Similar response as the Samaritan woman in John 4:15 (NASB95) 15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
[xviii] John 6:48 (NASB95) “I am the bread of life. John 6:51 (NASB95) 51“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 4:14 (NASB95) 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
[xix] John Piper, Do Not Labor For the Food That Perishes (John 6:22-29) https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/do-not-labor-for-the-food-that-perishes
[xx] John 1:14 (NASB95) 14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Luke 9:32 (NASB95) 32Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. John 2:11 (NASB95) 11This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. ; John 17:22–24 (NASB95) 22“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.; 2 Peter 1:16–18 (NASB95)16For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— 18and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.; 1 John 1:1 (NASB95)1What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—
[xxi] See Jason Dexter, Bible Study on Hosea 12:1 – Feeding on Wind and the Emptiness of Pursuing the World
https://studyandobey.com/hosea-12-1-feeding-on-wind/. Cf., Titus 3:3 (NASB95) 3For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Hebrews 11:25 (NASB95) 25choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 2 Timothy 3:2–4 (NASB95) 2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
[xxii] Psalm 54:4 (NASB95) 4Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. Isaiah 41:10 (NASB95) 10‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Hebrews 1:3 (NASB95) 3And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Colossians 1:17 (NASB95) 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
[xxiii] Colossians 1:15–17 (NASB95) 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
[xxiv] See John 9:3 (NASB95) 3Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
[xxv] Ephesians 4:28 (NASB95) 28He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NASB95) 10as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith? 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NASB95) 11and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,
[xxvi] Romans 6:4 (NASB95) 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
[xxvii] Be The Centre, https://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/vineyard/be_the_centre-lyrics-1120988.html