“The Bread of Heaven, Part 2" (Scruggs) | John 6:41-59

Sanctuary 

05.24.2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The following reading orders are from lmbc.org, and we had a letter to provide a reading to all. If you feel needed to give towards the ministry of look at Mountain Presbyterian Church, we welcome you to do so at lmbc.org and a reading from John chapter six, verses forty-one through fifty-nine.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone who has seen the Father except he who is from God, he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread that fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Please be seated, as we continue our sermon series in the gospel according to John, we are still in John chapter 6 that Jesus is bread from heaven, and Jesus is also the bread of life. I wanted to begin our time with an illustration from the novel My Friends by Frederick Bachman, where there is a famous painting from a famous artist, and it was his very first painting. So it's in an art gallery for auction. And Louisa, who is just a teenager, realizes that she will not be able to be allowed to be in the art gallery for the art auction auction for a painting that she loves as an artist, so she sneaks in. It's more of a break-in, but we will say she sneaks in. So she's in the art gallery and she's going through the crowd, and eventually she finds herself in front of this painting that she has had upon her as a person. It's been a four by six postcard for her entire life, this mass-produced replica of this painting that now she finds herself standing in front of. And eventually she will be noticed as one who not who does not have millions of dollars to purchase this art. She is confused for a server who is getting way too close to the painting. And then finally it's realized that she has a book back on that people who want to buy this painting believe that she's going to destroy the painting with spray paint. So they sound the alarm that Louisa is not supposed to be there. So the guards chase her out of the building, and as she's running around the building, she runs full speed into a man that's older than her. And as they begin to interact, she realizes from the tremors in his body that he's sick and must be really sick. But she also can tell from his appearance that he looks to be homeless. So they engage outside of now the art gallery. She is no longer going to be the one because she has no money to purchase the art. And he just asks of her, What does this painting mean to you? And she begins to describe in detail what it means to her. And then he finds out that she is an artist, and he asks of her, Will you draw for me? So she draws on the outside of the wall. And as she draws, he eventually takes the paint and the pens from her, and then he draws on the wall. And in that moment, she realizes he is the famous artist of the painting inside the gallery. And I share that illustration because it takes him doing something, actually drawing to reveal his true identity. What we've been considering in John chapter 6 is the true identity of Jesus who is doing things. Just from this chapter, he is the one who feeds the 5,000. He is also the one who walks on water. He is the one who says of himself, I am from heaven, and we will see the Jews stumble. They're like, hold on. We know Mary. We know Joseph. You just said you're from heaven? And then he said, Jesus is the bread of life. He makes these I am statements of what Jesus does and also revealing to us his true identity. This is who I am. And the Jews, God's visible people, in conflict with Jesus, God's Son. They stumble over what he does and who he is. And in this passage, we do learn and see his true identity. The Messiah, the sent one who came down from heaven to actually secure our eternal life. That's who Jesus is. That's his true identity. Let's pray as we consider these two points this morning. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are grateful for this Lord's day. We would just pray that you would continue to form us as your people as we worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, we would pray that your word by your spirit would continue to be made real to us. And Father, I would just pray those who are stumbling this day will see this Jesus who's person-to-person dialoguing with the Jews, trying to reveal himself to them, and recognizing that God might be drawing them to himself as well. So we are grateful for this day of worship. We are grateful for your word. We are grateful for Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen. Let's begin our first point this morning, stumbling over Jesus' origin. And this actually begins in other verses that we have already looked at in another sermon, but just want to bring it before you this morning in verse 33, if you have your Bibles. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life. And in verse 41, so the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. And John has been making this point throughout John 6, these connection to Moses, that Moses went up a mountain and Jesus also went up a mountain, that Moses was in the wilderness with the visible people of God, and Jesus is also in the wilderness with the visible people of God. We know that of that group that they were hungry, and Jesus provides a meal, bread of heaven to meet those physical needs, all echoes of Moses from Exodus 16. And like God's visible people, they grumble. They grumbled against Moses, which is ultimately against God, they grumble against Jesus, and grumbling to quote someone else. One of the most notable characteristics of the Exodus period was their constant refusal to trust God for their rescue. So they grumble. And this manna from heaven, these daily needs of that Exodus community met by God. Now Jesus is God before them, meeting those physical and tangible needs with bread, and they grumble. And the grumbling starts with where is Jesus from, his origin. I don't know if any of y'all experienced this when you were in school. Your mama jokes or your daddy jokes. And it typically was your mama is so or your daddy is so. And with Jesus, you're saying of your mama and your daddy. The problem, Jesus, is we know them. Verse 42. They said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I come from heaven? In this moment, for the theologians in the room, and we're all theologians, Jesus could have said, Well, I'm fully God and fully man and one person. He could have said, when you think of my mother Mary, this is by way of the virgin conception. He could have said, Joseph is only my father legally speaking. But that's not what Jesus says. He doesn't say any of those things. And sometimes as a reader, you can be frustrated with Jesus that he doesn't answer the question. But he does. He talks in terms of the work of the Father through the Son and salvation. And he does this by saying, you're either alive and life in Christ. Life itself is founded upon the work of God through the Son. And they are grumbling about God and how God works when He's actually engaged with His people through the Son, who is from the Father from heaven. And that's where Jesus started with this bread from heaven in the wilderness. And if you look back over this passage, we don't have time this morning. But the Mount of Times, John makes the point that Jesus did come down. He came down from heaven and he was sent by the Father. So he came down, he sent, and the Father is drawing those to his Son. It's based on God's initiation that God initiates with his people first. It is based on God's provision for all of our daily and physical, tangible needs. It is God's rescue mission that is sent from God in Jesus, which we will learn about more in our second point before I move there. He came down from heaven, and then Jesus makes this reference from Isaiah 54 that I'm going to read. And they all will be taught by God. And in this picture of Isaiah, Isaiah 52 through 54, a picture of the people redeemed by a suffering servant that is standing in God's presence, being taught by the Word of God. Now, why is that important for the Old Testament? If you follow through the Old Testament, we have a God who is speaking, and we have a God who is constantly acting. And in this moment that Jesus is teaching, he is teaching them that he is the suffering servant and he is the redeemer and he is God. But go back to the Old Testament just for a moment. We know throughout the Old Testament that God speaks and he acts. So he speaks. In the beginning, God created it, and we find out in Genesis, and God said, and all out of nothing he creates. But he also acts in redemption through the Exodus. But we have this moment with the burning bush of Moses, where there is a bush, but it's not burning. And God is speaking. So he acts and he speaks in deliverance and in this rescue mission of his people. But what's happening in this passage? God acts and God speaks. And now in the New Testament, Jesus is making the point. The one who sees God, God is invisible. The one who sees God, now you can actually see in Jesus. Jesus is God. If we want to know God, we actually do know Jesus, and these are the signs of his true identity, that he just fed 5,000, that he just walked on water, and now he has these I am statements revealing himself as the suffering servant, the bread of heaven. That Jesus is God. And for those Jews then, and maybe for us this morning, it is shock to the system. Because they would have known from the Old Testament and the prophets, okay, God of the Old Testament who acts and speaks, we know that we are actually supposed to trust him at his word. So we trust his word and we know that we are trusting his word when we actually obey. We put it into practice. So we're trusting and we're obeying, and we know when we put it into practice that that means it would be for God's glory, that God is actually the center of everything that we do and say. And if it's about trusting and obeying in God's glory, this is about worship as well. And Jesus is saying, I am God, this is my true identity. You know it from the signs, and you know it, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. So the invitation, which is the shock to the system, is will you trust me? Will you obey me? Will you be about my glory? And will you worship me? It's not about self-righteousness, it's not about self-interest, it's not about being self-centered. This is about Jesus, and he's making the point to them and saying of the Jews in the wilderness, there is manna from heaven, and you grumbled, and your fathers died in the wilderness. Now you have Jesus who is from heaven, and you're grumbling, and he is offering life, so we don't die in the wilderness. And in the terms from this passage, we see that as God is drawing those to his son. And I'm just going to read over these quickly. The Father draws those to come to Jesus. Come to Jesus to see the signs pointing to the Messiah. Come to Jesus for the I am statements, I am the bread of life, and the next one is I am the light of the world. Come to Jesus and study and learn about Him and His Word in the Old Testament that is moving in a direction. Come to Jesus to see God. Come to see Jesus for your life, secure an eternal salvation, and come see the true identity that is revealed. That Jesus, and the conclusion of this point, is from heaven. And Jesus is meant to be your life. As we're trusting, obeying, glorifying, and worshiping this Jesus. And this is made even more clear in the second point this morning. Stumbling over Jesus' offering. In verses 51 and following, we have this language beginning in verse 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. If you're visiting this morning and unfamiliar with this passage, you might think, is Jesus saying, Eat me? Eat my flesh. Drink my blood. Flesh and blood in the Hebrew idiom refers to the whole person. Flesh and blood as a real person, and when we eat and drink of this flesh and blood, that is spiritual food and drink. So Jesus really lived physically, his whole person, and something is spiritually being offered to us that is not meant to be taken literally. And just for a second before I get to that, just an example from this week of something not to take literally. We were at an elementary graduation, so now you have graduation for every grade. Now that's what we're doing. So a graduation for every grade. The principal said, we're gonna get to why all of you are here. The awards. Yard work. Was I like, oh, literally, I'm eating an elephant? No, it's like you're trying to do a little at a time because you can't do it all at once. So we use this of who our kids are, Mr. Sunshine, Miss Sunshine, or what you are doing, eating an elephant. And in this, who Jesus is and what he does, your life has been delivered by God through way of sacrifice. And in this way of sacrifice, the original audience is missing it. And a year from later, we find out that Jesus is in Capernaum, so this is his last public ministry in Galilee. He is in Capernaum at the synagogue around the time of the Passover. One year later, at the time of Passover in Jerusalem, he dies. A sacrificial death on the cross for his people. And in this passage, he is pointing them forward to that moment. When he says words like this in this passage, in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Jesus is your life, and that means that you are delivered from death. You're delivered by Jesus who is residing in you and abiding in you. This intimate and close relationship in verse 56. And in verse 57, he says, He will also live because of me. Jesus is your life, so that means that you are living for someone else that is not yourself. And then in verse 58, and I would encourage you to read over this this afternoon, go back all the times that Jesus mentions life and live, or die and death. This is the bread that came down from heaven in verse 58. Not like the bread of the fathers who ate and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. If Jesus is your life, he is offering eternal life where we are relationally safe and secure with God forever, based on who Jesus is and what Jesus has actually done on our behalf. And this is all the language of the Passover Lamb and the sacrifice. A life would be violently ended by death so that others would actually live. From one scholar, he put it this way: the sacrificial images of his flesh and blood, terms that evoke the entire system of sacrifice and atonement of the Old Testament. Jesus declares to his people this work to be the embodiment, all promises of satisfaction moving towards and embodied in a person that is Jesus Christ. Going back to the Exodus, a lamb was killed. The blood was smeared across the doorframe, marking out the family and the people who belong to God based on the death of the lamb. I want to conclude with this, going back to the novel, my friends. As Louisa interacts with that artist and they draw together, eventually those who are chasing them find them both. She runs away, he gets arrested. Only with time is his true identity realized, and he's not, he is not a homeless man. But we find out in the story, he actually is. And he's sick, and not only is he sick, he is dying. And he is homeless because he has sold all of his artwork and all of his earthly possessions, including his home, and he has sent someone inside in this art gallery for the art auction to buy this one piece of painting, his first one. And after he's arrested and eventually released, the painting is his again. And he's in a hospital and he's dying. And on his bed, his one death wish. I interacted with this girl. I want her to have the painting. Can death change a life? We know for the artist it's a costly sacrifice. And he dies, and he leaves a painting to Louisa, which changes her life. And this passage, the costly sacrifice, moving to a death that does change a life. And the question for each of us this morning is Jesus your life now? If Jesus is your life now, it means that Jesus will be your life forever. The bread of heaven. Jesus is that bread. It's an invitation for us to consider this morning. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you again for your word. We thank you for this passage in John as Jesus continues to explain to us and for us what it means when he said he is the bread of life from heaven, and that he is the bread of life to us and for us, based on his sacrifice, that we could spiritually live in him and relationally be made right with God based on the costly sacrifice of the Son. In his name we do pray. Amen.