This morning, open up your Bibles together with me to the book of Exodus chapter 16. Our Old Testament reading is taken from Exodus 16, verse 1 through 12. And the New Testament reading will be read to us before my preaching. But for now, let us hear the reading of God's Word from Exodus chapter 16. And before I read these verses, I would like to remind you that this reading is about the giving of manna. to the people of Israel. God gave food to the people of Israel in the wilderness. And as you hear these words, one thing that you need to remember is the significance of manna, the food that God gave to the people of Israel in the wilderness. That food was a symbol of God's provision to the people of Israel. But it had its own limitation. Manna was not given to the people of Israel to give them eternal life. In fact, if anyone kept manna after collecting it, after gathering it beyond a day, it would spoil. and no one would eat it. So it was not given for eternal life. It was not given as a true and living bread for spiritual life, but it was a sign of God's love and care for the people of Israel. When you hear these words, I encourage you to listen every word in relation to Jesus Christ, who is the true living and eternal bread of life. They sat out from Elim and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel say to them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in the law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, at the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening, meat to eat, and in the morning, bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumble against Him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the clouds. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. God's people, this is the reading of the holy, the infallible, and life-giving Word of God. And the Word of the Lord endures forever. Let us all stand together and prepare our hearts for the hearing of God's Word by singing 598. 598. But before we sing, turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 6. The Gospel of John, chapter 6. Starting from verse 22 through verse 51. John 6, 22 through 51. 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 the Lord 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 to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because You are filled of the loves. 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 say to him, what must we do to be doing the words 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's written. He gave them bread from heaven not 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 say 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 say 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 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. 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 it not 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 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. A man from Scotland was on board in a ship that was traveling to America. And before he was aboard on the ship, he took light snacks and a drink with him without realizing that his journey would be very long. And as the ship started sailing, the man started to become hungry. And he used what he brought with himself for the time being. And after a while, he finished eating all that he had in the ship. And as the ship continued sailing, the man became very hungry. And all his way to America, The man was famishing. He was so, so hungry. And at the time that he arrived to his destination, for his great surprise and embarrassment, when he looked into his ticket, everything that he had in the dining hall was provided, it was included in the cost of his ticket. He didn't realize, he didn't remember that everything, every bread in the ship was provided to him. Today, you look around you and you observe how people respond to the message of the gospel. How many people do you see rejecting the message of salvation as they hear it? but also they live without any realization, without any knowledge, that our Heavenly Father God Himself has already provided to them the true, eternal, and living Heavenly Bread. in and through his son Jesus Christ, who is the true bread of life. How many people reject the provision, the divine provision of this bread? And as you observe them, How do you think that you receive and cherish and benefit from this heavenly and eternal bread that has been provided to you from God through His Son, Jesus Christ? You see, the one important lesson In fact, much great significance that our text this morning shows us or teaches us is this. Jesus Christ is the only true living bread that satisfies the soul of man completely. If man wants to be satisfied in life, if man wants to be satisfied truly with his soul, he needs to come to Jesus Christ who claimed to be the true bread of life from heaven. Every Sunday that I will be in the pulpit here, I intend to take you through the seven I am statements of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first one is the one that we are considering this morning, I am the bread of life. But to refresh your mind and your reading of the scriptures, especially the Gospel of John, let me remind you what the other six I am statements of our Lord Jesus Christ are. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And I am the vine. And all these seven I AM statements of our Lord Jesus Christ are related to one another. Because they all speak about one person. The person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all the seven I AM statements of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially what we are considering this morning, shows us the saving relationship of our Lord Jesus Christ with His people. And this morning, by God's grace, I would like to show you three important things from this claim, I am the bread of life. The first one is Jesus Christ is the great I am. And the second one is Jesus Christ is the true bread of life from heaven. And then the third thing that I would like us to consider is what the response or what is required from those people who hear the message of the gospel. A message like this, that Jesus Christ is the bread of life. So first, Jesus Christ is the great I am. The first thing that we should notice in Jesus making this great I am statement, I am the bread of life, is him using the phrase I am. The phrase I am is equivalent to the Hebrew word Yahweh. It's a covenant name for God. This name is only reserved for God. This name tells us that God is eternal, that God is self-existent and self-sufficient God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When our Lord Jesus Christ used this claim, I am, He was showing all His hearers and all of us this morning that He is God Himself. He is divine. He is eternal. He is equal with God the Father in power, in glory. He is God Himself. When he claimed the word I am for himself, he was claiming to be a deity, to be God himself. And you all remember the time that our Lord Jesus Christ claimed this I am for himself. He was addressing the Jewish people. And they were hardening their hearts to receive the message of the gospel in John chapter 8. And Jesus said to them this, Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. And they were so surprised. They were so shocked when Jesus said, if you believe my words, you will not see death. And their response was, are you greater than our father Abraham? You are not even over 50 years old. Are you telling us that you saw our father Abraham? Are you greater than our father Abraham? And Jesus responded to them in saying, truly, truly, I say to you, what I'm telling you is true. Trust me, this comes from heaven. This comes from the one who is from above, who came from heaven, Jesus Christ, the bread of life. Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus didn't say before Abraham was, I was. Jesus said before Abraham was, I am. I am Yahweh. I am God. I am eternal. I am the pre-existent bread from heaven. God coming to you in the flesh to be the bread of your eternal life. I am the bread of life, but I am God. In John 17 verse 5. In that great high priestly prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed this prayer. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence. With the glory that I had with you before the world existed, I was with you. before the world had existed. And Jesus was praying to his Father to give him the same glory that he had before the world had existed. That he is eternal, that he is equal with the Father in glory and power. Jesus Christ, in his encounter with that great teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, he told Nicodemus this, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. My friends, today you may see books which are written by people who claim to be a person who has been in heaven, and someone who came down from heaven. And in their books, they tell you things about heaven, what they saw, what they experienced in heaven. I would encourage you with love and humility not to buy those books, not to read them. No one has ascended to heaven and no one has come back from heaven except Jesus Christ, the son of God. Paul was taken to the third heaven, but he was commanded not to say anything about what he saw, about his experience. And Jesus commanded him to do that, to humble him before the Lord and before all to whom he will minister as an apostle. But Jesus Christ himself, only Jesus Christ can claim as someone who has come down from heaven, as someone to whom belongs the great I am. the phrase, I am. You see, no one, no one can decrease Jesus Christ into a created being. No one can do that. Because Christ is God himself. Christ is God in the flesh. The second person of Trinity who came to become the bread of eternal life for the people of God. He is the great I am. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So when Jesus said to the people, I am the bread of life, He was basically telling them, the one who stands before you is God himself, God in the flesh. And I have come to you, I have come to the world to give you a spiritual life, to give you eternal life. And in order to do that, I have become the bread of life. With my flesh, with my body, I have become the bread of life. So that takes us to my second point. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. The great I am God became the bread, the food of eternal life for his people. God the Father sent his son Jesus Christ to the world to impart, to give everlasting life to the elect. He came from heaven. You see, in verse 33, Jesus told them this. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven. You see, he's calling himself the bread of God. You see, the bread, the manna that the people of Israel received in the wilderness was not called the bread of God. It was just called manna. It was from God, it came from above, up from the sky, but it was not from the eternal kingdom of God in heaven. It didn't come to give them eternal life, but Jesus is here claiming to be the bread of God. The bread that God gives to those who believe in Christ Jesus, his son, to have eternal life in him. And in verse 56, Jesus even says this, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him. If you feed, if you are fed, if you feed on me, if you receive me, if you eat me by faith, then I become eternal life for you. But we need to ask, But why is Jesus presenting himself at the bread of life in the context that we are dealing with this morning? Remember, Jesus fed 5,000 people, including children, with five barley loaves and two fish. They were fed. They were satisfied physically. And then when Jesus left the area and went to the other side of the sea, the people were looking for Jesus. They came to Jesus looking for him, that Jesus would give them more food, that Jesus would give them more physical bread. And they asked him, when did he come here? And Jesus responded by saying, Truly, truly, I say to you, I see your motive. I see your heart. I see the reason why you are here. You are looking for me because your stomach was filled. I fed you with physical bread. But now your motive is wrong. You are laboring for food that would perish. The reason why we are here is wrong. You need to look for the spiritual bread. You need to look for the eternal and living bread that has come from heaven. And that bread is I. I am the bread of life. So what caused this discussion, this encounter, between Jesus and the Jewish people was their motive, why they were looking for him. You see, he's likening himself to the bread of the table, but their motive was wrong, and Jesus is rebuking them. Jesus is showing them the true way by which they should follow him or look for him. God's people, it's very interesting for us to notice that the writers of the Old Testament, when they speak of the Word of God, when they speak about the eternal and the holy Word of God, often they relate it with the physical bread. Even God himself, when he was speaking to the people of Israel, because of their sin, because of their disobedience, he speaks to them in this way. For example, in Jeremiah 25 10, I will punish from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And then he says, the grinding of the milestones and the light of the lamb. Physical bread was the sign of the future life of the nation of Israel. In Israel, you go from house to house. It is common for you to hear the sound of the millstones. When you hear that noise, it tells you that bread is available for the people of Israel. They are eating, they are doing well. Bread has been provided to them. And whenever God takes His Word away from the people of Israel, when spiritual starvation comes to the people of Israel, God always tells His people, there will be starvation in your life, and My Word will disappear from you. and you will be hungry, you will be starving spiritually. In Ecclesiastes 12, three, the Bible says, the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders seize because they are few and those who look through the window are deemed. You see their life is very much connected with physical bread. And Jesus is using this metaphor This figurative speech, I am the bread of life. Because bread, my brothers and sisters, is the stuff of life. Bread is fundamental for life. A person can survive only by bread. People need to eat bread. It's the stuff of life. Bread represents all food, all necessary dietary of physical life. And Jesus is telling these people and all of us this morning, the same way that the physical bread is necessary for life. the same way that you should eat and survive on bread. I am necessary for spiritual life. I am necessary for eternal life. No Christ, no eternal life. No Christ, no bread of life. As food is essential for physical bread, and Jesus is essential for our spiritual bread. You remember Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. He was likening himself to the water in the well of Jacob. The reason why Jesus was doing that is he was comparing the physical water, the material water, with the living water that he was about to give to the woman. And Jesus is using the same metaphor here. But the people of God remember, Jesus didn't come to the world just to give us bread. But Jesus came to the world to be that bread for us. To be that bread Himself. And how does Christ become the bread of life that imparts, that gives eternal life? You see, this saying of Jesus Christ, the one who eat my flesh and drink my blood will have eternal life. That saying, that word was a stumbling block for the Jewish people. You know, when they heard that, many left him. Many were offended by the statement that Jesus gave to them. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life. They were offended. If you for some reason this morning are offended by that statement that Jesus made in the Gospel of John, maybe you don't understand the Gospel. How does Christ become the bread of life? In verse 1, Jesus reveals to us what he meant. In verse one, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of the bread, he will live forever. Now listen to this. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He's talking about his flesh now. And what is that flesh all about? He's talking about his death on the cross. He's talking about the vicarious death of Christ on the cross. He's talking about that death that took a place. He took the place of sinners and died on the cross on behalf of the people of God. His flesh suffered. He gave up his own flesh. for the salvation of the people of God. Remember, the Bible says the flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. This flesh, corrupted flesh, unless it is renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit, unless it is renewed by the blood of Jesus Christ, it will not inherit the kingdom of God. And what does the Bible tell us about sin? What causes death? Sin causes death. The wedge of sin is death. And the gift of God is eternal life in his son, Jesus Christ. But notice the wedge of sin is death. Why did Christ die on the cross? To take our deaths and give us his life. To give us eternal life. When Jesus said, and the flesh and the bread that I will give to eternal life, to you is my flesh. He was referring to the life that he brought to his people, to those who trust in him for their salvation on the cross. But also he's speaking about the nourishing of the soul every day, because Jesus also talks about his body, flesh and body. And that's the nourishment that believers receive from the great shepherd from Jesus Christ every day. It's his flesh and his blood. that blood that was shed on the cross for the remission of the sins of God's people. You see, His flesh and His blood are to be eaten and to be drank. But how do we eat His flesh and how do we drink His blood? We'll consider that after a while. But you see, his blood is the cleansing of our sins through the shedding of his blood on the cross. 1 John 1, 7, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all our sin. Past sin, present sin, and future sin. That's how Christ becomes the bread of life. That's how Christ becomes the living and true bread of life from heaven. In John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus Christ said this, I am the door through which the one who believes and repent enters to my kingdom. I am the door. Anyone who enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find a pasture. You see, salvation is provided there. And nourishment is provided there. And security is provided there. And Jesus said, if anyone would eat my flesh and drink my blood, I will raise him from the dead on the last day. That's your resurrection. He didn't come only to save you, but He came to preserve your life until that last day that you were raised from your grave and go to the eternal presence of God. His flesh and blood provides this eternal life to you as a child of God. The psalmist, after knowing and realizing this in his life, he said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. His confidence. was in God who provides, who nourishes him, who always takes him to that green pasture so that he will be kept safe and healthy in the presence of God. But lastly, I want us to consider the human appropriation of the bread of life. You see, Jesus presented himself to the people at the bread of life. What was their response? And how would you respond this morning? One thing that you need to remember as God's child, as the people of God, is the gospel message is not a classical message. The gospel message is not a mathematical message. The gospel message is not a metaphysical message. The gospel message is a simple message of salvation to those who are poor in spirit. Jesus said, the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of God, which means they will have eternal life. Why am I saying this? Because the people who have been hearing Christ claiming himself as the bread of life, they were not poor in spirit. Let me show you the wrong way, the wrong approach that they used to Jesus Christ. First, they came to him for the sake of material blessing. And Jesus told them, stop laboring for this bread. It will perish. Don't follow me for the sake of what I give you, but follow me because I am your eternal life. And this morning, my friends, if you are here because you want something from Jesus, If you are here, you want a material blessing for Jesus, your motive, your approach is wrong. You need to come to Him. You need to follow Him. Because without Him, you have no eternal life. Without Him, you will not be reconciled with the Holy God. Jesus Rabbi Koddam, don't come for that reason. And the second wrong motive and approach that they used was this. When Jesus said, I am the bread of life, their response was, are you going to perform another miracle for us? They were still hanging up on science, miracles, and wonders. Same as many, many people do today. Signs, wonders, miracles. And Jesus told them, and that is wrong. You need to come to Me because I give eternal life. And they also asked Him if He was greater than Moses. Because they thought Moses was the one who gave manna to the people of Israel. And Jesus told them, remember it was not Moses who gave manna to the people of Israel. It was my father. Moses only administered, only gave instruction to the people of Israel how to gather the manna in the wilderness. But it was my father who gave them the manna. The manna came from my father, from the sky. But I come from the eternal kingdom of God, from heaven, not to give you manna, a temporary physical bread, but an eternal spiritual bread. that will bring eternal life to you as a repentant, a sinner. You see, they were still hanging up on their tradition and on their understanding of who Moses was for them. But Jesus was the greater Moses. Jesus was not the giver of the bread of life only, but also the bread of life himself. Notice they are not rejecting eternal life here. Remember what Jesus told them, I'm the bread of life. If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have eternal life. And they come back to him and they say to him this. So teacher, what must we do in order to get this bread of life? You know what they are doing? They are hanging up on works, works of righteousness. The Jewish people never rejected heaven, never rejected eternal life. They understood life with God in heaven. They understood that. What they rejected was the Messiah, that Jesus was the only way to the Father. That's what they rejected. And that's what many people reject today. Pluralism rejects Jesus being the only way for salvation. Liberalism rejects Jesus being the only bread of life for repentant sinners. And notice Jesus' response when they told him, what must we do? You know, basically they were saying to him, we earn our physical bread, we work, So what kind of work should we do to earn this eternal life? And Jesus was not discouraging labor to earn physical bread. We should work and earn our bread. But Jesus was discouraging making a work of righteousness as a way of eternal life. So Jesus told them, do nothing. Stop doing anything. You have done enough. You have tried enough. You came all the way to Capernaum to Get this eternal bread by your own efforts. Stop doing things. Believe in me. The people of God eating his flesh, drinking his blood means believing in his work of salvation. Believing in the flesh that suffered for us, believing in the blood that was shed for us. Salvation is a gift from God. What must we do in order to receive eternal life, my brothers and sisters? Believe in Christ Jesus, the bread of life. The only thing that a person is required to do is to believe in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is the gift of God. Christ at the bread of life, the gift of God for us for eternal life. So this morning, would you embrace Christ at the bread of your life? One thing that you need to remember is this. Bread, physical bread, if we just put it on the table and just look at it and do nothing about it, it's not going to be useful for our bodies. We have to eat it. We are not called to look at Jesus from a distance. We are called to come to him, believe in his work of salvation, and nourish him every day of our Christian life. Let us pray. Almighty God and Father, we bless your name for your word, the word of the living God about Jesus, the true and the living bread of life. And may what we have heard this morning take root in our heart, change our life. May your son, Jesus Christ, become the bread of our life. O Lord, as believers, help us to use all the means of grace that you have given us at the Church of Jesus Christ and individually. Help us to use the reading of your Word, the hearing of the preaching and the teaching of God's Word, and the sacrament to nourish our spiritual life. Help us to use these means of grace in order to be nourished by the bread of life, in order to display the kind of life that you want to see in our lives, a life that is worthy to its call, the call of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.