THE BREAD OF LIFE |
The World, the Word & You!
Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan
“WHAT’S IN A NAME? YOU KNOW, IN BIBLICAL TIMES A NAME WAS VERY IMPORTANT. IT OFTEN SPOKE OF WHAT A PARENT WANTED TO SEE IN THE LIFE OF THEIR CHILDREN. WELL, THE FATHER IN HEAVEN HAS GIVEN HIS SON, ‘A NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES’…”
I’m Dennis Finnan,
host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment
we’ll talk about it…
..Hello there listening friends, and welcome again to another broadcast edition of the World, the Word & You! I’m Dennis Finnan your host and speaker thanking you for joining us today. The World, the Word & You! is a 30 minute radio program featuring biblical commentary on events and happenings of our time, along with a good look at “the Book,” God’s holy Word given to all mankind. Our program is sponsored by the kind care and support of our listeners and friends, upon whom we depend in earthly terms, for the continuance of our outreach. Yes indeed, each week we are thankful for your help and support.
Well on today’s programming we are going to look at “the Good Book,” as some call it, our Christian Bible and as we do, I want to explore one of its most important teachings that surround our Lord Jesus Christ. But before we get down to our study of the Son of God, let’s pause and listen to this lovely moment of music, after which I’ll return with today’s message entitled: THE BREAD OF LIFE…
… I love the Word of God! I know every other Christian does
too, for in it we discover everything about ourselves, and our God who created
us. But perhaps the greatest revelation of truth and blessing we find there, is
what the Father in Heaven reveals about His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. I mentioned earlier in my opening of the value and purpose biblical
names represented in olden times. If we look at Scripture we find that often a
person had more than one name, especially in the 1st century. For
instance Saul of Tarsus was Paul the apostle, Cephas the fisherman was Peter
the apostle. Well greater than all of these multiple names individuals went by,
the greatest of names is given to none other than the Son of God, Jesus of
Nazareth. I find in Scripture that Christ has ascribed to Him more than 117
Scriptural names! But in every case His Name whatever He is called, is a name
above all other names, and represents for us some fact of His Deity, His work,
and His wonder. I want to talk to you about just one name given to Jesus, the
name “the Bread of Life,” but first let’s pause again for this moment of music…
…What’s in a name? Well, my name is Dennis. My parents named
me this because they liked that name, simply enough. I’m sure they gave no
thought as to its origin and meaning in antiquity. However I researched my name
years ago and found it comes a Greek name, Dionysus, which meant of all things
“the god of wine.” Ha! Surely a misnomer of me, and the very principle of my
life! But then… today names, as I said, they have lost their meanings and most
today name their offspring on the basis of popularity, or at the least family
heritage.
Well of all the New Testament names given to Jesus Christ, we discover the name, “The Bread of Life” in John’s Gospel is one of the most revelatory of who and what He is and became. Now the grand theme of the Gospel of John of course, is the deity of Christ. Jesus is the God-Man as the Christian faith so believes. John the apostle of the Lord writes,
John 1:1 (NIV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:14 (NIV) “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Indeed anyone who will read the entire book of John in the
New Testament, will discover and surely be convinced that they are dealing with
more than a mere man when they deal with Jesus Christ, for He is God! Yes, He
alone can save from sin, from Satan and from everlasting punishment, and His
Names speak of all that He is and will do for us who are sinners.
Right now I’ll open for you John’s gospel chapter six, where
we read of one of the most beautiful names given to Jesus. In is in fact, a name the Lord reveals about Himself…
John 6:35 (NIV) “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.”
Throughout the New
Testament we discover Jesus’ various names: The Lamb of God, The Water of Life,
the Light of the World, the True Vine, the Temple of God and here the Bread of
Life. Notice the Bible says through the very words of Christ, “I AM the
Bread of Life.” Now this doesn’t mean that He is literally what is wheat
flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
The Bible speaks figuratively more than 250 times, yet
within this “figure of speech,” He literally tells us the meaning of this
glorious name. Indeed, Christ is the source and sustenance of our spiritual life
as physical bread is the source of our physical life. Let’s look at the
context of these passages and find out the meaning of this particular name and
its possible application to all of us today.
To begin we must look at John chapter 6. Here we learn that the disciples who followed Jesus, discovered the true meaning of this name. In verses 1-4, we see the problem of “Feeding the multitude (1–14) who followed the Lord out into the countryside far from town and food. It was getting late and people were hungry. One disciple thought the answer to feeding them was earthly, in obtaining money to buy bread, but another saw the answer was heavenly, in the small boy with a lunch.
Secondly, in verses 15-21 of chapter six, we see the test and trial the disciples faced in “Leaving the multitude” (15–21).
This incident occurred at the high point of our Lord’s popularity. The disciples (especially Judas) would have welcomed a kingdom, so Jesus sent them away into a storm. They went from popularity to peril, but they were safer in the storm than with the multitude; and Jesus came to them and met their needs.
Finally, we come to our passage in John 6:22-71, a lengthy one, but filled with revelation of God’s great Person and work in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples who followed Jesus were excited to see the crowds. It meant He was becoming popular, yet this is not what God intended. So here we see the Lord perform a great miracle, but alas the people responded in earthly terms rather than spiritual terms. So the disciples of the Lord witnessed the “Losing the multitude” (22–71). People were hungry, and the God-Man meets their needs miraculously by multiplying the bread and the fish of the little boy to feed over 5000 people gathered that day to hear Jesus speak. Sadly, in that day as in ours, people want the Lord to meet their physical needs but not their spiritual needs. The miracle manna of the Old Testament found in Exodus 16 came only to the Jews and sustained physical life, but Jesus came for the whole world and here we are told that His name above all name reveals He was going to give all who followed Him, unending, “Eternal Life.”
Now, just as you take physical food into your body to sustain you, so the Bible reveals all sinners are to take Christ spiritually into their lives, and when they do ¾ the God Man becomes “one” with them, and sustains them for ever and ever in that life. So, Jesus speaks to the multitudes and His disciples,
John 6:26-27 (NIV) “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.””
John 6:32 (NIV) “Jesus [further] 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.”
John 6:35 (NIV) “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.”
Notice this unique phrase “I AM,” for twenty-three times in all the New Testament Greek text, we find this meaningful description prefaced to His names. In several of these, including our name of the Lord today, He joins His “I AM” with seven tremendous “metaphors” which are expressive of His saving relationship toward the world. Notice them…
“I AM the Bread of life” (6:35,41,48,51).
“I AM the Light of the world” (8:12).
“I AM the Door of the sheep” (10:7,9).
“I AM the Good Shepherd” (10:11,14).
“I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25).
“I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (14:6).
“I AM the true Vine” (15:1,5).
Beautiful names! However, right now we are exploring that
name “I am the Bread of Life.” When the crowds heard this they cried out,
John 6:34 (NIV) “”Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.””
The crowds thought Jesus had some miracle source of physical bread at His disposal, which they could eat for the rest of their lives without toiling and working for. Not bad, but hardly what Jesus was referring to. No, the God-Man Jesus Christ was telling the world that God the Father, the Creator of Life, had something great and far better ¾ it was a sustenance and provision that would give them what God had intended when He first created the human race ¾ and that is, that we would all LIVE FOREVER!
Do you know that science today realizes that the human body
has the potential to live forever? However, it also has discovered that within
our human makeup is an unexplainable programming in our DNA to die out and
self-destruct. The Bible tells us about this alternate programming,
Gen 2:16-17 (NIV) “And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.””
Ezek 18:4 (NIV) “For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.”
Rom 6:23 (NIV) “For the wages of sin is death..”
Yes, God re-programmed humanity, after the Fall into sin,
which was originally designed to live forever, that after Adam and Eve’s
disobedience all their children would now be born in a state of decay and
dying. However, Jesus Christ,
our Creator and Sustainer (Col. 1:16-18), came to earth and revealed in His
name who and what He is and will do. “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.” This name the
Father God gave Him reveals so much.
Do you realize that just as you eat physically, we must also
eat or partake spiritually? We are not just a body with electrical impulses;
Scripture reveals we are created in the image of God.
Gen 1:27 (NIV) “So God created [mankind] in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
This image means we are composed of body, soul and spirit. Within that body of
yours, lives an eternal being, a spirit being like our Creator. And that spirit
will live on forever and ever. Jesus later affirms what God said in the Old Testament,
Dan 12:2 (NIV) “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Mat 25:46 (NIV) “”Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.””
Do you realize the implication of this name, the “Bread of
Life, and perilous condition it reveals about you and me? We are born sinners,
with a nature that rebels to the rulership of our Creator God over us. This is
why so many vehemently hate Christianity. It reveals the necessity for us to “bow”
our hearts and lives to the rulership of another, a greater than us, our God
who is Jesus Christ.
Now here, Jesus tells us if we want to experience
restoration and become once again what God originally created us to be, then we
must understand the meaning of His Name and apply it to our very lives. Now
unfortunately, an entire religious group has misinterpreted Jesus words here to
be some kind of magic potion and spell. Roman Catholicism has read these
passages of Scripture and concluded that for everyone to live eternally, they
must partake of what has become for them the Eucharist, the Mass, or the Supper
of the Lord. In this they have concluded that Jesus was teaching that when one
takes the Bread of this Ordinance, it literally becomes the living flesh of
Christ and we through it inherit eternal life. The official creed of Romanism
given by Pope Pius the IV states: “I profess that in the Mass is offered to
God a true, proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead and
that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really and
substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of the
Lord Jesus Christ...” True Christianity totally rejects this and considers
it blasphemy, for Jesus NEVER implied this in His Word spoken about Himself
long ago.
Rather He stated clearly, that the eating of His flesh and
drinking of His blood was symbolic and figurative. Listen to the words in the
text.
John 6:51 (KJV) “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 6:53 (KJV) “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”
Even in Jesus’ day at that moment many were offended and
misunderstood. The Lord was not saying they needed to “eat” his body and drink
his lifeblood to life eternally. Cannibalism and savage tribesmen believe such
nonsense. No the Lord made sure the disciples knew He was speaking
FIGURATIVELY! Listen to the Lord’s explanation,
John 6:63 (NLT) “It is the Spirit who gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Did you hear that? The words I’ve spoken to you are “spirit
and life.” So in understanding what Jesus said His name was, indicates what
we are all to do to inherit eternal life, and be RESTORED to mankind’s original
state. Jesus says and now listen carefully,
John 6:35 (NIV) “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.”
Notice how we can receive eternal life. We must “COME “ to
Jesus, and we do this by “BELIEVING” in Him. How do we come to Jesus? We hear
His Words, we sit under the teaching of it, and we submit ourselves to its
truth and calling. Furthermore, what does it mean to believe in Him? Well, it
means when we understand what God says about Jesus Christ, and what we are to
do on account of it ¾
we respond with our heart, soul, mind and strength. Have you come to Jesus?
Have you believed on Him? He is the Bread of Life, which means He is GOD the
SUSTAINER and Creator. The apostle Paul writes by divine revelation,
Col 1:16-18 (NIV) “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Everyone must come to realize that just as we eat physical
bread to live and sustain our earthly bodies, so all of us must partake of the
spiritual bread, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We “eat” this spiritual bread
by faith, when we believe. Our spirit and soul is sustained and given new life
in Christ.
Rom
6:23 (NIV) “For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Notice we must COME to Jesus and RECEIVE Him, and the only
way we can do this is by ACCEPTING Him as a “gift” from God. Friend, have you
receive Jesus Christ? Have you believed in Him that He is the Bread of Life,
the Creator of all, and that He came to earth as the SAVIOR of all? When you
accept Christ into your heart you say, “Yes Lord Jesus I believe you are
my God. That you are my Creator, and that all life that I may life forever in
Your presence, can only come as I partake of that living Bread, my Lord Jesus
Christ. I believe He died for me. I believe He lives for me. I believe that You
Father God, will gave me eternal life that is the life of Christ the moment I
receive Him by faith into my heart.” Friend, when you pray that prayer
with your mind and heart in full belief, God “will” forgive your sins and make
you a REAL partaker of the spiritual life of God the Son, forever and ever.
That is what this name above all names means. It is my prayer that you my
listening friend have come to this tremendous revelatory understanding and that
you have come to Christ, receive Him, and believe on His NAME! That friend IS
the gospel and good news for all sinners, and it is the blessing and joy of all
who receive Him. One day in glory, all
the saints shall sing,
Rev 5:12 (NIV) “In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!””
Rev 4:11 (NIV) “”You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.””
Yes, to God be the glory and worthy is His Name…
…Names are a beautiful identification of our personal being.
Although the meaning today is not as important as our personal like of it,
God’s names given to His Son our Lord Jesus Christ were meaningful and
purposeful. May you always remember the beauty and goodness of Christ’s names,
and may they ever be the source of your hope for tomorrow. Daily feed upon the
Bread of Life. Read and Study God’s Word. Memorize it and hide it in your
heart. Then go out and practice it for the glory of God and for all that
is good…
…Well friends, you’ve been listening to another radio
broadcast message from the heart and mind of your teacher and friend, Dennis
Finnan. I thank you for staying with me over these thirty minutes, and to say
thank you I’d like to send you a free complimentary copy of this program either
in cassette form or a printed booklet. All you need to do is write for it. Now
for our international listeners this offer is also available. Just ask for today’s message THE BREAD OF LIFE.
Now here’s where to write: The World, the Word & You! Broadcast, Post
Office Box 40133, Grand Junction, CO 81504 USA. We’ll send it free and
postpaid. Now as this broadcast is usually heard on the weekend, I encourage
you to find a Bible believing church of our choice and to worship there and
learn more about God and His Word. Then tune us in again next week for another
look at our world, God’s Word and it’s relationship to you and me. God bless
you my friend, keep looking up for the Bible says our final and full redemption
is surely coming soon. Have a wonderful day, good by for now.
· Radio talk #0701
· Broadcast date: February 18, 2001
· Speaker: Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator
· Program: The World, the Word & You! Radio Broadcast
· Address: P.O. Box 40133 Grand Junction, CO 81504
The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 20 years, and serves as General Director.
These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also.
For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(dennis@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.wwy.org/