Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I'm ready for my afternoon nap even though it's morning. We're having a  generator put in today, and they came real early. I had to do some stuff before they  got here, which I forgot about till I woke up in the night or whatever. I got up real  early and began working on that, and then while I was up, I worked on the podcast,  and then I took the dogs for a walk, and now I have workers. It's been a full day. Scott: You could give the army a run for their money. Doing that before 9:00 AM. Steve: The only problem is the army doesn't let you take naps. 

Scott: True. 

Steve: We've been studying God's names. We just finished El Elyone. We've done  Jehovah Sabaoth, Jehovah of hosts. We've studied God is our shepherd. The hope is,  that the more we understand God's names, the more we'll understand God and  understand His character and His attributes and what He's like. 

We completed six or seven episodes on Jesus as the rock, which, as we discovered, is  a lot more to it than He's solid or He's someone we can count on. We discovered He’s  a source of water, the water which flowed from The Rock. He's also the cornerstone,  which is the foundation of the church. 

He's the foundation of our faith. We could go on and on because we dug deeply for  six or seven episodes. I hardly knew how to follow it up. I've been praying, and I  thought maybe we'd tackle a subject that, if possible, is even more present in  Scripture than the Rock, and it is Jesus is the Living Bread. 

We're going to start on this topic, which I have found it to be prevalent in Scripture  from Genesis to Revelation. I hardly know where to break in. I think what I'm going to  do is I'm going to start with one of the longest and most troubling passages to the  people who heard it, and yet one of the most edifying passages to those of us who do  understand it. How's that for an introduction? 

Let's pray, and then we're going to read a big chunk of scripture, and then we're  going to work backwards. Father, thank You for this subject. Thank You not because  it's an interesting subject and because it's prevalent in all of Scripture, but because it  reveals more about You, Your son, Your nature, Your character. I pray for Your divine  help today. 

Spirit of God, help us to see past the physical bread, which is necessary and needful,  but help us to see and understand more about the living bread, about Jesus who is  the bread of life in Jesus' name. Help Scott and I together as we collaborate, read these scriptures, and give us ears to hear what your Spirit has for us today. In Jesus'  name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: When I said that, what did you think about when I said, "It's one of the longest  passages, it's one of the most insightful passages, one of the most edifying passages,  and one of the most troubling passages in the Bible about the bread"? Does anything  pop into your mind? 

Scott: My first thought was, you mean there's more than the last supper? Then when  you said it was troubling, I thought of John 6 where He tells them about eating His  flesh and drinking His blood. 

Steve: Yes. Well done. As people know who've been listening to these podcasts, I like  to do topical studies. I read my Bible through every year as do you, Scott. We read  from Genesis to Revelation. We have a pretty good handle on the context of passages  when we quote them, but I don't think I've read this whole chapter at one time. Usually, I pull passages out about the bread, but I don't think I saw the whole context  until I read the whole chapter. It is a long chapter, and I hope people will buckle their  seat belt, and let's see how long it takes. John 6.  

“After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of  Tiberias. And a large crowd was following Him, because they saw the signs that He was  doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His  disciples. 

Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up His eyes, then, and seeing  that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy  bread, so that these people may eat?’ He said this to test him, for He himself knew what  He would do. Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be  enough for each of them to get a little.’ 

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a boy here who  has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’ Jesus said, ‘Have the  people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five  thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He  distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments,  that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with  fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw  the sign that He had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the  world!’ 

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king,  Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.  

When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started  across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The  sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were  frightened. But He said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they were glad to take Him  into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had  been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but  that His disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place  where they had eaten the bread after Jehovah had given thanks. So when the crowd saw  that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to  Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 

When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, ‘Rabbi, when did you  come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not  because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the  food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will  give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal.’ Then they said to Him, ‘What  must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of  God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.’ So they said to Him, ‘Then what sign do  you do, that we may see and believe You? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the  manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ Jesus  then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread  from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is  He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to Him, ‘Sir, give  us this bread always.’ 

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and  whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet  do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I  will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will  of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of  all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father,  that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will  raise him up on the last day.’ 

So the Jews grumbled about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down from  heaven.’ They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, Whose father and mother we  know? How does He now say, “I have come down from heaven”?” Jesus answered them, ‘Do  not grumble 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. It is written in the Prophets, “And they  will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to  Me— not that anyone has seen the Father except He Who is from God; He has seen the  Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes  down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came  down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I  will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” 

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to  eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of  Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks  My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food,  and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me,  and I in Him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever  feeds on Me, He also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from  heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live  forever.’ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as He taught at Capernaum. When many of His disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’  But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them,  ‘Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to  where He was before? It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words  that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not  believe.’ (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who  it was who would betray Him.) And He said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come  to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ 

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said  to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to  whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have  come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose  you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.’ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon  Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.”  

That was five minutes. I timed it. Did you notice the word artos in Greek, which is the  word for bread, appears 97 times in the New Testament. 21 of those times is in this  one chapter, which to me is astounding. 

This is why I say we chose this chapter to begin our study. You mentioned  communion. I don't know what else to say about communion than has already been  said. Communion is one of the central ordinances in the church. 

I know there's a lot of controversy about it. Are these symbols? Are they realities?  There's all kinds of substantiations, consubstantiation, transubstantiation. I know all  these things, but it says in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, where He talks about this cup of  blessing. He talks about this sacred fellowship. 

Communion, comes from the Greek koinonia, for fellowship and participation. It's  more than communion with each other. It's communion with God Himself.  When we do it, not only are we edified, but it says in 1 Corinthians 11, "As often as  you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." It  has a worldwide impact. Every time we take the body and blood of Christ, we are  proclaiming His death until He returns. 

It's a powerful thing, and those passages in Corinthians are based on John 6. Did  anything stand out to you before I keep going? 

Scott: Just the connection of all the stories. It's easy to separate those stories out. You  think about Jesus feeding the 5,000. You don't think about that with the end of the  chapter where many of His disciples turn away from Him. 

Steve: Exactly. That's what I noticed today. I hadn't realized that the bread is what  started the whole chapter. Keep going. 

Scott: No. That was that there's so much in here. Clearly, this wasn't an accident.  Sometimes you read the Bible and especially the gospels, and it feels like Jesus is sort  of wandering, and then, oh, yeah, He gets crucified. None of this was on accident.  There was all of it. He may look like He's wandering. 

He was going straight like an arrow on the path that God had for Him. All of this is  connected, and I'm finding that more and more with a lot of passages where I'm  astounded at what came right before a verse I've memorized or heard a million times.  I'm like, "Oh, wait. This is right before that?" There's a connection there. Steve: I think that's why it's essential that we read the whole Bible because we miss  those connections. Even though it's helpful for me to do my topical studies, and you  were trained in Navigators where you memorized passages, but yet the passages  themselves are in context. They're parts of bigger things. I'll give you another one  that I noticed this morning. 

1 Corinthians 5. "Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep  the feast." There was a song that I used to sing at a summer camp, and that was the  refrain that you sang over and over, but let me read the context, verses five through  eight. 

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole  lump? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are  unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us  celebrate the feast not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the  unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 

There is a feast of unleavened bread. Unleavened means no sin, no leaven, no malice,  no evil. This is one of the many foreshadowings of Christ in the Old Testament. As He's talking to these people in John 6, His disciples, with many others who are  following Him, a lot of them because they wanted a free meal. Some of them wanted  to see more signs, but at a pretty carnal level. "Hey, we get a free meal here if we  keep following this guy. 

"He gives us fish and bread until we're full. I like this and He's got some interesting  things to say." He was building on all these things mentioned in the Old Testament.  He spends a lot of time talking about the manna that your fathers got from heaven.  Even David, I noticed this verse this morning in Psalm 78, "He commanded the skies  

above and opened the doors of heaven, and He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels." What an  expression? The bread of angels, this manna. I've got the whole chapter if we wanted  to read it in Exodus where the story, I don't even like the word story, it sounds like  fictional. 

The account of the manna coming down from heaven and He fed them. We completed  our study on the Rock, which provided pure, wonderful, crystal clear water from the  rock, and then He gave them the bread of angels from heaven. We know that to  sustain life we need bread and water. We need food and we need water. He gave it to them, but He didn't give them just anything. It wasn't processed. No  chemicals. This is right from heaven. No wonder they could live 40 years in the  wilderness and their shoes didn't wear out and they didn't get sick because they were  getting this pure ministry, if you can put it that way, from heaven. The water right  from Christ, the bread of angels right from heaven. 

He was laying the foundation at the time. Then He taught His disciples to pray, "Give  us this day our daily bread." As I looked that up, daily probably should be translated  necessary. Give us what we need. He gave them what they needed in the wilderness. He gave them bread. He gave them water, but He was also planting seeds because He  knew that in John 6, Jesus was going to use that as a teaching point and then point to  Himself and says, "I am the living bread. I am the bread of life." Any other comments? Scott: That right there is the example of what I was going to point out is when you  were saying it's important to read the whole Bible because, yeah, there's plenty you  can connect in the New Testament, but if you've read the Old Testament too, there's  layers of more meaning that come on into this topic. Like, when you connect this all  together, it brings it alive for me. 

Steve: I'm going to mention two more, and that will probably be enough for today.  Deuteronomy 8, "He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which  you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that a  man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the  mouth of Jehovah." 

I mention that because that verse is the one that Jesus quotes to the devil. It's the first  time bread is used in the New Testament when Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to the  devil, "Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from  the mouth of Jehovah." 

There's these, again, this is a whole different component now. He's using the manna,  He's using the bread, but He's saying, you don't just need bread, you need every word  that comes from the mouth of Jehovah. You need to read the whole book. 

There's a couple times in the Old Testament where these long, if I can put them,  historical overviews, similar to what Stephen did in the book of Acts when he gives a  whole historical overview. One of them is in Psalm 78, which I've already quoted. Another one is in Nehemiah 9, and it's a whole overview. I'm not going to read the  whole thing, but it's really worth reading. There's one verse. "You gave Your good  Spirit to instruct them. Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth and You  gave them water for their thirst." Now there's another component added. Yes, I gave  you manna. Yes, I gave you water. I also gave you My Spirit. He gave us His word. He  gave us His spirit. I think that's probably a good start to our topic. If I can recap. So far, we've seen that Jesus is the bread of life. We eat Him. We feed on Him. We live  forever. He gave us His Word in addition to the bread. He gave us His Spirit. He tells  us to eat the unleavened bread because there was a whole feast of unleavened bread,  which in and of itself was to remind them of where they had come from. They'd come out of Egypt, but it was once again to point to Jesus Who was unleavened  completely. No sin. This is awesome. It's wonderful to read these passages. Father, thank You for how You orchestrated Scripture and how all the way back  coming out of Egypt, You foresaw the coming of Your son, and You began to lay this  foundation in feasts, in the manna, in providing for them, giving them their necessary  bread, teaching us how to pray and ask for necessary bread, and this culmination up  to date right in John 6. 

Thank You that we have been helped to see that and not wander away. Thank You for  Peter's declaration. Thank You that even though it was troubling to them and perhaps  in some ways still troubling to us, yet nonetheless, we accept it as it is, the word of  God. Thank You for giving us Jesus. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.