What Child Is This? (The Bread of Life)
John 6:28-35
Today, of course, is the Sunday before Christmas day. I have deliberated whether I would do a special Christmas message from Matthew or Luke who both write about the birth of Jesus. But the more I thought about it, our text in John 6 really deals with the most important issue of the birth of Jesus. In the words of the hymn by Wiliam Dix, the question to be asked as we consider the birth of Mary’s baby boy is:
What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
What Child Is This?
“What Child is this?” the popular Christmas carol asks. Or in other words, “Who is Jesus?” And our text in John 6 answers this question as well as any place in scripture. In this chapter we hear Jesus proclaim who He is with the words, “I am the Bread of Life,” (John 6:35, 48).
To fully understand all of Jesus’ statements we need to of course understand the setting. Jesus had just performed His most popular miracle. It appears in all four Gospels. It began when thousands of people followed Him to a hill overlooking the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. There Jesus fed more than 5,000 hungry people with a little boy’s sack lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish. Everyone ate until they were full and the disciples collected 12 baskets of left-overs!
Jesus left after this miraculous feeding and the next day, some of those who had eaten the bread and fish provided by Jesus searched for Him all over the Sea of Galilee. The conversation in today’s text occurred when they finally caught up to Jesus in Capernaum. Here Jesus has a dialogue with these Jews about the meaning of the sign of the bread. Take your Bibles and turn to John 6 and let’s read what happened. We are going to focus on just a couple verses today, but I’m going to read verses 25-40 so you get the substance of what Jesus says.
John 6:25-40
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
As we saw last time from verses 25-27, these people came seeking Jesus, but for the wrong reasons. The missed the meaning of the sign. All they got out of that great miracle was food. They failed to see the true nature of Jesus. They sought Jesus only because they were hungry again. And—we mustn’t be too critical of these people because physical food is a priority in all of our lives—even today. In fact, as I speak there’s a good chance some of you are thinking about the good food we’ll have at the fellowship meal after this service.
So in verse 27Jesus turns their attention from their physical hunger to their spiritual hunger and how He alone can satisfy it, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Jesus was using their physical hunger as a springboard to address their spiritual hunger. He was trying to help them understand that the things of this world do not satisfy the longing we all have for God. But Jesus does satisfy that hunger.
The Work of God: Believe
The people in Capernaum respond to Jesus in verse 28, “Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?””
They pick up on Jesus’ command to work for food that does endures to everlasting life. Jesus has worked a great work of God in feeding the 5000. They know this. They want to do the works of God too. They want to be able to do what Jesus does. They think He can teach them the secret of doing such works. They want to be fed like this all the time. So they are saying, “Show us how to do it, Jesus!”
And Jesus’ answer again exposes their wrong thinking. Verse 29, “Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”” Jesus picks up on their question about works and says in effect, “The only ‘work’ that you can do is to not work, but rather to believe in Me, the one whom the Father has sent.” Jesus is saying, “I and I alone are the means by which that eternal life can become yours.”
Seeking by works to be right with God or to have the power of God is probably the most common spiritual error in the world. All false religions, including some that go under the label of “Christian,” teach a works-approach to spirituality and salvation. Do this, obey these commandments, give to this cause, perform this religious act—all are works of men that cannot make us right with God or give us the power to do the works of God. The Bible is clear that it is faith in Christ alone that saves.
Him Whom God Sent
Listen to the words of Jesus again, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Jesus is using irony here. He does not mean that believing is a meritorious work on our part that somehow commends us to God. The Bible is clear that faith itself is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29). Jesus will say in verse 37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me,” and in verse 44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” Faith is not our work, it is the gift of God. Believing in Jesus is coming to Him as a hungry, helpless sinner and trusting entirely in the person and work of Jesus Christ to make you right with God.
And here is where this message ties into the Christmas message. Look at the end of verse 29, Jesus said, “believe in Him whom He sent.” Jesus was not just born, He was sent. This is the great theme of the Gospel of John. We read it in chapter 3,
[John 3:17, 34] 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. … 34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
Again in chapter 4,
[John 4:34] 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
In chapter 5 we hear it again from the lips of Jesus,
[John 5:23-24, 30, 36-38] 23 “that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. … 30 “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. … 36 “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish–the very works that I do–bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. 37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
We hear it again in this chapter,
[John 6:38-40, 44] 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” … 44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. … 57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
This word, “sent” speaks of Jesus’ divine pre-existence. Although others, such as prophets like John the Baptist were sent by God (John 1:6, 33), Jesus was uniquely sent from heaven as the divine Son of God. How do I know that this means Jesus pre-existed as God with the Father? It repeats the truth of the incarnation that we read about in chapter 1. There John gave us the great truth that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1, 14).
And Jesus repeatedly says this means He “came down” from heaven. Look at these verses:
[John 6:33, 38, 41, 50-51, 58] 33 “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” … 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. … 41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” … 50 “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” … 58 “This is the bread which came down from heaven–not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
Jesus came down out of heaven. In verse 46, Jesus makes it clear that He has come down from God when He says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.” He has come down out of heaven. Jesus is affirming His divine incarnation. He didn’t come into existence when He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was sent. He came down out of heaven.
This is the claim that Jesus makes repeatedly. Look at how plainly Jesus says it in John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”” We’ll see even more statements like this as we go through this Gospel.
So the great thing to understand about Jesus is that He is sent from God. He was with the Father in heaven and has come down so save the world through His death and resurrection. We’ll see more about this next time, but just notice how What the people say in verse 30. These Jews, who have just the day before eaten the miraculous loaves and fish, ask Jesus an incredible question:
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
They are comparing Jesus to Moses. Jesus fed a large crowd; Moses fed the entire nation. Jesus did it once; Moses did it for 40 years. Jesus provided ordinary bread; Moses gave them “bread out of heaven.” So they’re saying, “Okay, Jesus, you gave us a little sign. Let’s see You do a big one, like Moses did! Then we’ll believe in You!”
Jesus responds by correcting them. He says (6:32-33),
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
He is saying, first, that it wasn’t Moses who gave them the manna; God did. And, second, the manna wasn’t the true bread, because people who ate it still died. But Jesus, whom God sent, gives eternal life to the world. He does this through His death and resurrection. In verse 51 Jesus again says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Jesus is the Bread of Life, the One whom God has provided to give life to the world, to give life, eternal life, to you. God has provided Jesus as the bread that satisfies forever, that gives everlasting life. What’s our responsibility? Sit around hope it happens? No, in the wonderful mystery of salvation, we are commanded to appropriate this bread. Please notice in verse 34, “Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”” Most likely, they were talking about the physical bread because He had been creating food for them. They wanted the bread that would satisfy their constant hunger physically, but Jesus isn’t really talking about that. He’s talking about Himself as the bread they really need.
Come and Believe
So in verse 35, we read, “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”” “Coming to Jesus” and “believing in Jesus” are parallel here. They explain what Jesus means in 6:53 when He talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It means to trust in Jesus’ death as the complete and final payment for your sins. Jesus says that the result of coming to Him is that we will not hunger and the result of believing in Him is that we will never thirst.
Part of the original words of the Christmas carol, “What Child Is This” that we rarely sing today say this,
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
Jesus died for your sins. Come to Him. Exchange His life for yours. Eat of this bread and live.
This is a message we need to hear because you can be as rich as Bill Gates and still be hungry for more—you can have everything this world has to offer—and still be unsatisfied. It is a hunger that all people experience, an aching of the souls for something, someone, that truly satisfies the longing of our hearts. Everyone is hungry. No matter how big the pile of gifts under your tree—you won’t be satisfied. As Ravi Zacharias has put it, “With all our ingesting and consumption, our hungers are still many and our fulfillments are few.”
A few years ago there was an interview that Tom Brady, the famous quarterback of the New England Patriots, did with 60 Minutes. And in this interview he was at the height of his career. He had won three Superbowl titles; he had won two MVPs; he had a supermodel wife; he was a multimillionaire. Rich, beautiful, famous, accomplished—that was his story. Some of you may remember this interview as he talks with the journalist he says, “Why do I have three Superbowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I think it’s got to be more than this. I mean, this isn’t it. This can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.” And the journalist asked, “What’s the answer?” And Tom Brady responds, “I wish I knew.” And that’s a story we’ve heard many times from people at the top – “I wish that I knew.”
Do you feel that hunger today? Come to Jesus. Believe in Him, that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead to give you life. Eat of this bread and live forever.
