At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, 'I am

							John 6:41-51                                                                              August 19, 2012
John 6:41-51. At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came
down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we
know? How can he now say, `I came down from heaven'?" "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus
answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up
at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: `They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to
the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from
God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the
bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that
comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down
from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give
for the life of the world."
    If you do any baking you know it’s important to follow the recipe and add the right
ingredients. Forget a simple ingredient like salt, or substitute one ingredient for another -baking
powder for baking soda - and the result may be something that tastes terrible and no one will eat.
Forget that little packet of yeast and your bread won’t rise.
    The same is true with the way to heaven. God’s wonderful plan to save sinners has certain
ingredients for which there are no substitutes. Combine one penitent sinner with the perfect life,
innocent sufferings and death and glorious resurrection of our Savior Jesus and you have the
only ingredients that mean you will rise from your grave to eternal life in heaven.
    Our text continues our Gospel readings from John 6. First Jesus fed the 5,000. After the
miracle the crowds tried to make Jesus their “bread-king”, someone who could provide their
earthly needs. Jesus told them not to hunger for food that spoils, but for food that endures to
eternal life. Today we see Jesus teach them that he is the main ingredient, the yeast in the Bread
that rises to eternal life. Today, we learn Jesus is
                                 “THE BREAD THAT GIVES LIFE”
                                  I. Note the heavenly ingredients
                                    II. Enjoy the eternal benefits
I. Jesus’ “Bread of Life” sermon became a turning point in his ministry. It marked the end of his
popularity with many of his countrymen. Large crowds no longer followed him. Only a faithful
few remained. As intense opposition set in, Jesus began the intensive training of his disciples and
made more specific predictions of his suffering and death. He also took the Gospel to non-Jews.
    Yet his “Bread of Life” sermon led the Jews along a logical path of reasoning: food for the
soul is more important than food for the body. Food for the soul comes from God. The bread of
God is a PERSON who comes from heaven and gives life to the world. And then the clincher,
Jesus said he’s the heavenly ingredient: “I am the bread of life. I have come down from heaven.”
    “At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, 'I am the bread that came
down from heaven.’” The Jews arrive at the correct conclusion: Jesus claims he came from
heaven to be the way to heaven. But the Jews refuse to accept these conclusions. Instead of
waiting for Jesus to explain his heavenly origins, they grumble, “Is this not Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
They refuse to believe what human reason can’t understand. Reason says Jesus is from Nazareth.
Why, they know his parents! How can he therefore say, “I came down from heaven?”
    Wanting to reclaim these straying sheep, Jesus builds a case to support his claim that he came
from heaven. “Stop grumbling 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.”
    A sinner can’t provide the necessary ingredients to get right with God. Only a miracle of
God’s grace and the power and working of the Holy Spirit can draw sinners to God. It is
possible, however, for a human being to turn away from God. That’s what Jesus sees as he stands
in front of the grumbling Jews. He sees people who think they’re spiritually well fed. But
they’ve been eating spiritual “junk food”. They, as their leaders, believe they have the inborn

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John 6:41-51                                                                             August 19, 2012

ability to get right with God by themselves. They feel they can provide the proper ingredients to
get to heaven by their good deeds, their following the Mosaic law. Jesus negates their notions
and pinpoints the heavenly ingredient necessary to bring people to God and his plan of salvation:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
     The Bible makes it clear no human can provide what is necessary to enter heaven: “For it is
by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
- not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians. 2:8,9). Jesus makes it clear no one can
CHOOSE to be saved: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). When it comes to
conversion, God does all the work. We confess as Luther wrote: “I believe that I cannot by my own
thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel.” As the Father draws a sinner to Jesus and the Spirit works saving faith in a sinner’s
heart, that sinner has eternal life. Instead of being condemned on the last day because of sin, a
believer can claim this promise of the Savior: “I will raise him up at the last day.”
     To support his claim that the main ingredient in salvation is God’s miracle of grace in the
heart of a sinner, Jesus says, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.’” This quote from Isaiah
speaks of believers. Sinners become believers and remain such because the powerful words of
God’s forgiveness have turned their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God’s Word is the tool
by which God creates and strengthens faith. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the
message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
     In his “Bread of Life” sermon Jesus focuses on the heavenly ingredients when he says all
who listen to and learn from the Father’s words come to Jesus. This startles the Jews gathered
around him. Most of them incorrectly assume that listening to God’s words and learning from
Jesus will point them toward the keeping of more laws as the right ingredient to enter heaven.
Others misread God’s words and don’t learn from Jesus at all; instead they lean on their own
works as the way to heaven. But there is only one proper ingredient for heaven -faith in Jesus.
     Then Jesus said, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has
seen the Father.” To understand Jesus’ comment, imagine how the Jews react to his words.
Jesus claims to be the way to heaven. The Jews reasoned, “Why should we put our trust in a
man from Galilee to get closer to God? Oh, we liked the free food he provided yesterday. We
wouldn’t mind if he duplicated the feat and made life easier. But what right does HE have to say
we need HIM to get to heaven? Who does HE think HE is?”
     Jesus makes it clear he is the one sent from God, the only one who has seen the Father. So, if
anyone is looking for the bread that gives life, look to Jesus. He is the heavenly ingredient. Jesus
is the bread of life, the only way to rise from the dead and enter heaven.
      Throughout history mankind, using sinful human reason, has tried to substitute many things
for the heavenly ingredients provided in God’s Word. People want to add or substitute good
works as necessary to gain eternal life. They like to think the avoidance of certain sins is another
ingredient that helps get them to heaven.
     But God’s Word says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “the wages of
sin is death. No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law” (Rom. 3:20,23;
6:23). Any attempt to alter God’s recipe proves disastrous. To believe in Jesus Christ as Son of
God and Savior of the world is the only way to heaven. To know that faith in Jesus is a gift of
God’s grace, worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit -God’s plan has these definite ingredients
for which there can be no substitutes. Combine one penitent sinner with the perfect life, innocent
sufferings and death and glorious resurrection of our Savior Jesus; add Spirited-worked faith in
the sacrifice of Jesus and you have the ingredients that lead to heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Nourish
your souls with spiritual foods consisting of these heavenly ingredients.

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John 6:41-51                                                                          August 19, 2012

     Concerned about nutrition, we may carefully read grocery labels to detect artificial
ingredients and avoid things that aren’t healthy or add unnecessary calories. Please also check
the ingredients of the spiritual food that goes into your soul. Make sure you digest only Jesus, the
“Bread that Gives Life”, the only proper soul-food.
II. Jesus has emphasized that he is the heavenly ingredient of the bread of life. Now he invites
us to enjoy the eternal benefits of eating that bread. “I tell you the truth, he who believes has
everlasting life. I am the bread of life.” A believer in Jesus has and enjoys eternal life. Eternal
life isn’t some distant, far-away benefit but a present reality for a believer. Whether young or
old, in good health or ill, rich or poor, a believer in Jesus enjoys God’s forgiveness and mercy.
And one day he will rise from the dead and enjoy God’s love in the perfection of heaven.
     The Jews are looking for some sort of magically produced earthly bread to improve the
quality of life, or at least make it easier to put bread on their tables. They think: “Our forefathers
picked up free food for 40 years during their wilderness wandering. Wouldn’t it be nice to have
someone put us on easy street by providing a steady supply of free food?” But Jesus offers
himself as spiritual bread to benefit their souls spiritually and eternally and says: “Your
forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down
from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.” Jesus is saying, “Believe in me, eat of my bread
of life, and you won’t die eternally.”
     In his first epistle John said: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He
who has the Son has life” (5:11-12). Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will
never die” (John 11:25-26).
     Finally, Jesus reinforces and restates the truth of his heavenly origins. He is the one and only
heavenly ingredient of the bread of life. He also reinforces and restates the wonderful benefit of
eating this bread. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this
bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
     These words again shock the Jews. If they only look at Jesus and listen to him with the eyes
and ears of faith, they would shout to the heavens for joy at this good news. But the Jews simply
cannot and will not believe Jesus’ death is for their eternal good. As these Jews now reject Jesus’
words, so their leaders will reject Jesus and put him to death on the cross.
     But what eternal benefits we enjoy through Jesus and his death! He gave his flesh, his life as
a payment for the sins of all. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins” (Ephesians 1:7). May we therefore praise the bread of life, our Savior Jesus Christ!
     Today there is plenty of artificial, non soul-nourishing food offered in the spiritual
marketplace of the world’s religions. But none can provide the right ingredients or satisfy the
soul with the comfort and confidence of eternal life like Jesus, “The Bread That Gives Life!”
     Combine one penitent sinner with the perfect life, innocent sufferings and death and glorious
resurrection of our Savior Jesus; add Spirited-worked faith in the sacrifice of Jesus and you have
the ingredients that lead to heaven. Remember Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Nourish your souls with
spiritual foods consisting of these heavenly ingredients and enjoy the eternal benefits. Amen.




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