GLUTEN-FREE BREAD - (1)

John 6: 1-69 – Part 1

“I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will not hunger.” John 6:35

How many people would like to end world hunger?  Throughout the ages how many agencies, ministries, fund raisers, soup kitchens and so forth do you suppose have helped to feed the hungry?  I would not even venture a guess.  Just on the commercials I’m watching on cable, and on the ads on the internet I see each day, there are several.  That is without my doing a search.

When I go to the grocery store, amidst the aisles of plenty, there are reminders about those who can’t walk in and help themselves.  I can add a donation to Capital Area Food Bank to my grocery tab, or I can purchase pre-bagged groceries that will be delivered to a needy family later.

Hunger is universal.  When Jesus stated “I am the BREAD of life” he was not fooling around with our hopes and dreams.  And to prove that, he DID that – fed people literally, that is.

Read the story here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%206:1-15&version=NIV

Listen to story here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/John.6

John 6:1-15 tells the story.  A large crowd gathered in a deserted rural area.

They were hungry.

They had gathered for a good purpose – to hear Jesus speak.

They were far from a store.

They were far from their homes where they did have food.

There wasn’t enough for everyone.

They didn’t have enough money.

He used the whole situation as an object lesson. (“…he already had in mind what he was going to do.”)

He gave them bread.

But this object lesson was no magic show.  He did not wave a wand and produce an egg.  What happened was so over-the-top that it not only met the need but it ASTOUNDED people.  They tried to seize him and MAKE HIM KING!  Think about that.

And before we move on to what he taught them about this event, let’s make sure we have really grasped the enormity of the event.

YOU DO THE MATH!
TOTAL AVAILABLE AT START	1 meal
There were 5,000 men plus an uncounted number of women and children (use your best guess)	+5,000 +5,000 +5,000 15,000 meals
There was Jesus and his 12 special disciples	+13 meals
They had 5 small barley loaves	-1 meal
They had 2 small fish.
It was enough to feed one boy.
TOTAL NEEDED	15,012 meals
EVERYONE had plenty to eat	15,012 meals
12 baskets full of leftovers (basket holds 10 meals – use your best guess)	120 meals
TOTAL AVAILABLE AT END *	15,132 meals*

When was the last time you went to dinner and had MORE food left at the end than at the beginning?

What is the point that you get from this object lesson?

*[If you calculate a literal 5,000 meals, and figure in very small baskets (2 meals worth), there were 5,024 meals produced from the original 1 meal.]

Gluten-free BREAD and WINE - (4)

John 6 & Matthew 26:2,17-29– Part 4

“The Passover is two days away –

and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Matthew 26:2

Read the story here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026:%202,%2017-29&version=NIV

Listen to story here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Matt.26.2

Jesus spoke to the people by comparisons.

Jesus gave bread to the crowd.         Then he said:

I am the BREAD of life

When the Jewish crowd asked him for a sign, he said:

          I am BREAD FROM HEAVEN (manna)

There was one more comparison from the passage we’ve been reading in John chapter 6.  Jesus fed the crowd just before the Passover* Feast.  And later he told them: “This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.”

When the people got offended at him for telling them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he could just have said:

          I’m not talking about cannibalism, guys!  I’m telling you that

          I AM THE PASSOVER LAMB.

But they weren’t ready for that.**  He led them right up to the edge of that understanding.

He didn’t say it straight out UNTIL it was time for the Passover Feast at which he would actually suffer.

And he revealed it first only TO those closest to him – the ones who believed him.

While they were eating, Jesus took BREAD, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat;

THIS IS MY BODY

Then he took a cup (of WINE), and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you.

THIS IS MY BLOOD

Jesus was now revealing for the first time that the entire 1,300+ year history of the Jewish Passover celebration was God’s object lesson,*** preparing them for the REAL deliverance of Israel:

GOD’S PASSOVER LAMB IS JESUS

What a master teacher Jesus was!  As the twelve friends ate the bread and drank the wine, they were told that they were actually receiving into themselves God’s deliverance.  They would never forget that moment.

How about you?  Have you received God’s deliverance?  It is Jesus.

*[The Passover, for those of us who aren’t Jewish,

was God’s deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians.]

**[Since they hadn’t believed that he had come down

from heaven, how could they accept he was sent

 to earth on a deliverance mission from God?]

***[The Passover itself was a figure of speech!

A figure of speech is a comparison of something known

(Passover was well-known to the Jews)

to something new (Jesus is the Passover Lamb)

so that it can be understood.]

GLUTEN-FREE BREAD TO EAT - (3)

John 6: 1-69 – Part 3

”Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:58

Read the story here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%206:35-69&version=NIV

Listen to story here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/John.6

Everyone wants to live forever.  So why – as soon as Jesus said: “Whoever eats this bread will live forever”—did the crowds desert him?

It was because of one simple word: eats.  Jesus’ Jewish audience was very careful with what they ate and with how they ate it.  There were ceremonial food laws that covered all the “dos and donts," and Jesus was breaking several of them. 

First off, Jesus switched from saying “eat this bread” to saying “eat my flesh.”  That is where his faithful Jewish followers got off the train. They had very strict rules about eating flesh.  Some meats were kosher and some were not.  What Jesus seemed to be proposing wasn’t kosher!

Second, no Jew would consume the blood along with the flesh, because the life was in the blood.  And here was this man telling them to “Drink my blood.”  What was he, a vampire!?

And finally, was this man insane!  What person in his right mind would insist that people must “eat his flesh and drink his blood.”  If he really did mean this as a figure of speech, then why did he keep repeating it and driving home the point?  He KNEW how angry and upset this audience would become if they took his words literally, so was he trying to drive them away?

Good question.

No, Jesus wasn’t driving them away, he was separating them.  He knew that many in the audience didn’t believe him, and that is why they kept grumbling and arguing. They were offended and scandalized, when they should have been amazed and transformed.

First, they got offended when he told them he came from heaven.

Then they were scandalized when he seemed to be proposing cannibalism.

They weren’t really listening.  If they had been, they would have heard and accepted his explanation: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are spirit and life.”

The ones who had already written him off, left; the ones who really believed who he was, stayed.

Which one are you?