The Cover Story of the December 1994 issue of Life magazine addressed the question, "Who was Jesus?" This is a question people have been asking for 2000 years and still a vitally important question today. The problem with the question is the tense. One cannot ask who Jesus was, because He is, you see. Jesus is! Jesus Himself says in John 8:58 "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!" Rev. 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Rev. 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! Rev. 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Jesus Christ is eternal, in Him there is no end, so the question is not who He was, but who He is!

But it is nevertheless a good question, because it provokes the thoughts and demands an answer of all who read it. In searching for the significance of Christ, we must realize that He is more than simply a character out of some story line of some great work such as "Casablanca" or "Gone With the Wind." Nor is He some past great spiritual leader such as Mahatma Ghandi, or simply a revolutionary such as Martin Luther King JR., or a great reformer such as Martin Luther that we may ask the question, "Who was this great man?" To even ask this question introduces a type of subjectivity about Him which causes us to mold Him into whatever suits our particular understanding. Thus the reply that the writer of this article gives to the question, crediting it to Paul, misquoting Jesus as saying -"I am all things to all people." The nature of the person of Jesus Christ excludes that option. He transcends culture. He is the most controversial person in history. The Gospel message will always meet with opposition and strife in this sinful, pseudo- religious world.

Alamo City Baptist Church recently bought a new trailer. They painted one word on each panel. "Jesus." The very first time they used the trailer they turned onto the highway and a car full of young men opened their window and yelled obscenities at them. Then not even a mile further down the road, there was another car full of young men. This time the response was different. They waved and smiled and pointed upwards showing approval of the name Jesus. Folks, that is the nature of this man. He always evokes two kinds of responses. You will either hate Him or you will love Him. Jesus was and is controversial because of who He is - Lord, because of what He is - The Way, the Truth, and the Life. This makes Christianity somewhat restricted. Jesus was controversial because of his message - repentance and judgment.

So when you think about it, Jesus is not simply a helpless little baby in a manger to be worshipped once a year, neither is He as the article says, "All things to all people."

Who is Jesus?

I believe that one of the places that will lead us to the answer to that question is the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Luke 11. In particular vs. 4 Luke 11:3 "Give us each day our daily bread".

What exactly did Jesus mean? In the light of the context of the following discourse, He may well have had in mind first and foremost, the spiritual need of man, thus vs. :11-13 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

The spiritual "bread" that the Bible speaks of generally appears to be divided into three categories. Each one connected to the other, though distinctive in their operation in the life of the believer.

1. vs 13 "Ask the Father for the Holy Spirit." And Romans 14:17, "The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." This is a reference to the bread as "Spirit".

2. Then in Jesus words of Mt. 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Psalm 119 speaks often of the Words of the Lord being sweet to the taste. Jeremiah the prophet speaks of eating the Words of the Lord as they came to Him. The Word of God is nourishing, energizing spiritual bread for our souls.

3. Then we have the third aspect of this spiritual bread and the one that we will dwell upon this morning. Jesus Himself explains His imperative role in God's grand scheme of things as being the Bread for which we must ask the Father.
John 6:25-35 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" [26] Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. [27] Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." [28] Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" [29] Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." [30] So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? [31] Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" [32] Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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] "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." [35] Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus Christ is the Bread of Heaven. He is the fulfillment of the soul that craves fulfilling. Even as Jesus modeled that prayer He was offering Himself as the answer to that prayer. "Ask the Father for your daily spiritual bread that you may be nourished and strengthened by the Truth that has the power to set you free. Then look to me for the answer to that prayer, because I am He. I am the bread of life. As we look through this passage we notice that there are some awesome truths relating to this bold statement of Jesus.
Observe in the first place,
I. A Possibility That Condemns Us

John 6:30 -34.

The only thing that is permanent in the grand scheme of things is a personal faith in the Bread of Life. To fail to see this truth is a possibility that condemns. See John 5:16-18 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. [17] Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." [18] For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. That was where their problem lay. In the fact that He made Himself equal with God.

And that is where the problem lies today. There are countless religious people in the world today who are trying desperately to undermine the work of Jesus Christ as God. But they will not succeed. You cannot change the immutable. He is God in the flesh. Inferior concepts of who He is need to be vastly elevated. He is more than a choice profanity. He is more than a personal Guru. He is more than a spirit guide. He is no weakling, inferior, man made savior. He is the King of Kings. The creator of all the universe who was and is and is to come. That is the reason that the world who excludes Christ is destined to fall apart.

Col. 1:17 "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Whether we like it or not, He reigns from the beginning to the end, and in Him all things are held together. Without Christ all is hopeless. Nothing makes any sense. When we know Jesus, we know God.

One of the primary reasons we miss the truth of who Christ really is, that we miss the bread of life, is that there is superficiality without comprehension. These Galileans had just been fed in a miraculous way, but they had not seen the sign of the miracle. They had seen the bread in the sign, but they missed the sign in the bread.

They began to question Jesus about different matters. Their hunger had been satisfied, so they were now ready to come and listen to Him again. The momentary distraction had passed. But there was a greater distraction. The distraction was a blindness to the truth. The truth that Jesus wanted them to see was that the hand that miraculously fed their bodies had the power to free their souls. The work of their hands, and the toil of their bodies could ensure for them a daily physical bread, but for spiritual nourishment there was only one work that they could do and that was to believe in Him. (6:29)

They tried to compare Jesus with Moses. But He was far greater than Moses. Look at the comparison that the writer of Hebrews makes in Hebrews 3:2-6 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. [3] Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. [4] For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. [5] Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. [6] But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Moses was a part of the household of God - The messiah was it's architect. Moses Knew God personally - The messiah was God permanently. Moses was a servant in the House - The Messiah was Son over the house. In every way He was greater. Not that Moses was less than who they claimed him to be, it is that Christ is greater than they thought Him to be. So Jesus exclaims, "What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven, and He is offering you that in me!" In answer to which comes that mighty cry of human need. The same cry which was heard at the well of Samaria, and the same cry which is heard today in this place when we come to recognize who He really is. "Lord, give us this bread always."

Church, there is a terrible danger of failing to see the Christ who offers himself as the bread of life today. We may be distracted by the Moses' of the world today who may be great prophets. They may have the answers that we are looking for. They may be able to do great signs and great wonders. They may be able to give immediate gratification, but there is only one bread of life and the failure to recognize Him will lead to condemnation. Everything in this world is temporal. All our possessions and all our works are going to burn. The only certainty that we can have is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is in turning our eyes upon Him and our hearts towards Him that we may avoid the possibility that brings condemnation.
Secondly we see that there is:
II. A Priority that Confronts Us
vs. 30 "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?" They had failed to recognize who He was, so they wanted a sign. They had already forgotten the great sign on the other side of the lake. They wanted another in accordance with the rabbinical tradition. (see John 2:18; 4:48). This is what led them to speak of bread. It was a Rabbinical tradition that a true prophet would give signs which would give him the authority to be heard. It was also a Rabbinical tradition that when the Messiah would come He would call down Manna from heaven. They quoted words from Ps. 78:24 & 105:40, recalling the gift of manna in the wilderness. They were so concerned about the sign that they completely missed the point that the Messiah was right there among them. Jesus would now have to confront them with the priority of the moment and that was to believe in Him because of an inward working, apart from the outward sign.

When the great historian Irenaeus was asked what great new thing Christ had brought, he answered simply, "He brought Himself" He brought far more than signs. He brought far more than manna for the hungry belly. He brought Himself and gave himself as the bread of life that takes away the hunger of the most desperate of souls. Now Jesus seizes the opportunity to reveal Himself as that one who is the bread for which they have been asking. He makes the first "I Am" claims about Himself of this gospel. vs. 35, "I am the bread of life; vs. 48 "I am the bread of life" vs. 51 "I am the bread of heaven, vs 41 "I am the bread which came down from heaven." Dods calls this "the concentrated gospel." It is concentrated, but it is full and satisfying. How ample. How generous. "The bread of life." Nothing more is necessary for our spirits. He is as necessary as our daily food. In fact He is our food. He enables us to meet all that life has to throw at us and remain upright in spirit.

I am irritable at times. But I am most irritable when I am hungry. There will be times when I feel downright miserable. I'll call Janice, and I will tell her how bad I feel and she'll say to me, around 4 in the afternoon, "What have you eaten today?" and she knows what my reply is going to be. "Well, I just didn't find the time." Then I'll go and scrounge something or get a hamburger just to tide me over, and boy what a difference! I can feel the energy coming back. The irritation disappears and I feel my old self again. So it is with the bread of life. We must have that spiritual energy of Christ in us on a daily basis so that we may be energized with His power. Doing and being that which apart from Him would be a miserable existence.

There are many who are impressed with the rituals of faith. There are many who are impressed with Christ's ideal for life. There are many who are impressed with the physical things of the Christian faith, the religious principles, which are good. And so each day the effort is made to live a righteous life. To follow His example. To keep the rules and the rituals.

But if there is no bread of life in your soul you will tire of all the effort and you will fail and be utterly miserable even in all of your accomplishments. It must be Christ in you and there is only one way by which that may be attained. He is the Bread of life and the bread of life is ours for the asking. All we need do is bring to Him our appetite and He will do the rest. This is what we see in the third place as:
III. A Process That Converts Us.

John 6:35-40 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. [36] But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. [37] All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. [38] For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. [39] And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. [40] For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Notice the process here.
1. We must come. vs 35
There is personal commitment involved. It is not a commitment to a particular denomination. It is not a commitment to a certain creed or constitution. Not even a commitment to a certain way of life. Church, it is a conscious decision to come to Him that is the bread of life. He who rises above all of our personal presuppositions of who or what we are supposed to be. He who rises above all the signs and miracles that we would seek. Simply Him. The bread of life. And as we come, all of our questions must be set aside. All the what ifs must be left . We must simply come. There is a sense of repentance in this coming. For, as we come to Him, we must come away from that which opposes Him and competes with Him.

2. In coming there is believing. vs. 35.

The coming to Jesus which He speaks of here is far more than just assenting to a knowledge of His existence, or even His deity. It is believing in your heart unto salvation. There were many in that crowd who had "come" to Him so to speak, but they did not believe. We must believe. vs 46-51 The crowd would have gladly received this bread of life from God if they could have got it apart from believing in Him.

Listen to what they said in vs 34. "Lord, ever more give us this bread." Yes, there is not a person who does not want eternal life. There is not a person who would not gladly receive the assurance of satisfaction for all of their emotional ills. All would gladly say, "Yes, give us this most blessed of all gifts." There would even be some who would gladly pay for such assurance. There would be those who would work for all they were worth for such a realty. But when those standing by heard that He was speaking of Himself as being that bread, they turned away. vs 41. They began to grumble about Him. They lost sight again of who He was. This is Jesus the son of a carpenter. We know His mother and Father. How can He be the one. So, our human logic gets in the way again, and we lose the moment of opportunity. But there is no way around it. It is either believe in Him, or forever be condemned. It is Christ and Christ alone. vs. 51. We must eat of that Bread in order to live. He is not speaking of a literal sense here. This is so often misunderstood. It is a spiritual partaking. It was misunderstood then, and misunderstood today.

This is the truth about Christ? This is how we must come to know Him. When we know Christ in this way, all of the other questions of life fall into place.

I once heard about a man who came home from church one Sunday. He ate lunch and then sat down in his easy chair all tired. He got his Sunday newspaper and he started to read it. He was so happy to be home because he had a long hard week and he was totally exhausted. He just wanted to sit down and relax. He had been at church and sat through a boring sermon (probably like this one). And he just wanted everyone to leave him alone, when his little five year old girl came running into the room. She ran up to him and said, "Daddy, please come and play with me!" He said, "Honey, not right now. Daddy's tired from working all week and going to church this morning. Let me just sit hear and read the newspaper." Her response was, "Please come and play with me, Daddy." He realized he had to think of something so he grabbed a paper he had gotten at church. Tore it up into many small pieces and said to his little girl, "Honey, take this into your room. If you can put the pieces back together in the right place again Daddy will play with you." She said OK." And off she went. He thought to himself, "I've got it made now. I will take her hours to put that back together." Ten minutes later she came running back into the room. She had taken the scotch tape and put every piece right back where it belonged. The Father thought to himself, "Even I couldn't have done it that fast." He said, "Your Mom helped you right?" The little girl replied, "No one helped me. I did it all by myself." He said, "Well, how in the world did you do it?" He held it up and said, "How did you do that so fast?" She said, "Look Daddy," and turned the paper around. "There's a picture of Jesus on the other side. When I got Jesus in the right place all the other pieces just fit." Friends, that ought to tell us something. When we get Jesus in the right place, all the other pieces will fit in our lives.

Revelation 3:20 "Behold I stand at the door and knock.