Jesus, the Bread of God

[0:00] Let me pray for the meeting of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we were in loss.

[0:22] We were dead in our trespasses and sins. But in your great love, you did not leave us to our own devices. You sent your only Son, your precious Son, to save us.

[0:39] And we want to remember him this morning as the bread of God. The spiritual bread you sent from heaven to nourish us into eternal life. So as we listen to your Word, please feed us from this bread.

[0:57] Help us to believe in Him. Hope in Him. And in doing so, we become more and more like Jesus. It's in His precious name we pray.

[1:09] Amen. If you are able, please stand as I read John 6.3. Amen. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

[1:31] And a large crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was doing on the stake. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now at Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand.

[1:45] Lifting up his eyes, then 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 himself knew what he would do.

[1:57] 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?

[2:14] 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.

[2:28] 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.

[2:44] 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.

[3:00] When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the Sea of Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

[3:12] 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.

[3:25] 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.

[3:40] 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 guided to the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

[3:55] 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 balloons.

[4:09] 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 said is sealed.

[4:21] 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.

[4:32] 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.

[4:44] 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.

[4:57] Then 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.

[5:12] This is God's holy and glorified word. May be seen. I looked up a cooking video this week on YouTube, pray for Christmas, and it was overwhelmed by the sheer number of food-related videos on YouTube.

[5:40] There are millions and millions of videos, like cooking hot-to videos, and then these eating broadcast videos, where you just watch other people eat stuff.

[5:51] And then restaurant review videos, all kinds of videos. According to research from Miller Brown Digital, foodie fan culture is on the rise. Apparently from 2014 to 2015, there was a 280% growth in food channel subscriptions.

[6:07] Apparently, I didn't know this, nearly half of adults watch food videos on YouTube. That's half of us sitting here. And it says millennials watch more than any other demographic group.

[6:20] So there's an insatiable demand for food videos for one simple reason. There's always hungry people. We always get hungry again.

[6:31] So there's always a need for food. We eat and digest and get hungry, and so we eat again, and we can't seem to get enough of these food videos. Similar to our physical hunger, there is a spiritual hunger within all of us.

[6:49] There are people who try to deny this. For example, a little big foyer back, claimed that God is a human invention, and that human progress would follow the rejection of all religion. And Christianity in particular.

[7:02] Karl Marx said that God is the opiate of the masses, and predicted that the enlightened and prosperous society would find no use for God. Sigmund Freud asserted that God is an illusion.

[7:12] Now, Sigmund imagined in our own minds from the sake of restraining the violent impulses of a primitive civilization. And he predicted that God would be set aside in the new age of reason and science.

[7:24] Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared that God is dead. These priests of atheism, so to speak, boldly proposed a secularization hypothesis, which predicted that as society progresses, through modernization and rational thinking, it will become increasingly e-religious.

[7:43] However, the precise opposite has happened. In 1900, the year Nietzsche died, there were 8 million Christians in Africa. Now there are 685 million Christians in Africa.

[7:59] The Pew Research Center reported that in 2015, there were 2.3 billion Christians in the world, which at the time was 31.2% of the world population, which is the biggest it's ever been, and it's the largest religion in the world, and it's still to this day.

[8:16] The secularization hypothesis of the so-called far-seeing seers turned out to be a myth propounded by nearsighted lusts. According to the Gallup World Poll, which surveyed more than a million people living in 163 nations, this is 81% of people claim to belong to an organized religion today.

[8:37] And many who don't participate in other kinds of folk religions. Not only that, even in parts of the world that are reputedly most secular and most atheist, all kinds of unconventional spiritual and mystical practices are moving.

[8:54] Like in Russia and France, there are more occult healers than medical doctors. 38% of the French believe in astrology. 35% of the Swiss agree that some fortune tellers really can foresee the future.

[9:07] We feel physical hunger because our bodies are trying to eat. Likewise, we feel spiritual hunger because we were created to worship God, even though people in disguided ways are seeking it in other things.

[9:23] The 17th century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, puts it this way in his collection of essays, and kind of says, What else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?

[9:43] This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words, by God himself.

[10:02] John 6 teaches us that Jesus is the bread of God who satisfies our spiritual hunger. He demonstrates this to us by pointing to how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament scriptures in several ways.

[10:16] First, how he was a prophet like Moses, and secondly, how he was the Lord of the sea, and thirdly, how he was the bread of God. It says in verse 2 that a large crowd was following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

[10:32] He was healing, the recklessly. The word sign is a key word that recurs throughout the Gospel of John 17 times. And throughout the book, the people ask Jesus to do signs, and the signs are offered to them as a proof of Jesus' identity as the Messiah.

[10:48] And so it says in John 2, 23, many believed in Jesus' name when they saw the signs that he was doing. In fact, the recounting of these signs is one of the main purposes of John's writing.

[10:59] It says in John 20, 30 to 31, that Jesus did many other signs of the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

[11:14] That is John's express purpose in writing this Gospel. So that we might see the signs that are recorded in the book and believe in Jesus as the sign. So the signs serve an apologetic purpose to defend the claim that Jesus is the Son of God.

[11:28] So when the crowd gathers around Jesus and his disciples, Jesus sees another opportunity to do a sign. And he asks Philip in verse 5, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

[11:40] Now this is not because he is actually intended to buy bread because he's trying to test Philip. And Philip answers in the most predictable way. He says, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a bread.

[11:54] One denarius was worth a day's wage. So 200 denarii is 200 days wage, so about 8 months of wage. And our day and age they would be about $30,000.

[12:06] So that's a lot of money. Some of you might have $30,000 in your bank account, but this is not some chunk change that these itinerant disciples are going to be carrying around in their pockets. And so Jesus' request is a little bit unreasonable from a human point of view.

[12:24] And so not only is there no place that would sell not much bread, even if there were such a place, they would not have enough money to buy it. And so at this point, Andrew interjects, and he says in verse 9, well, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.

[12:39] And he can't help but despair himself. He says, but what are they for so many? The boy is generously sharing his food, but that'd be enough for Jesus and his disciples maybe if they ate any other portions, but he would certainly not be enough in the crowd.

[12:56] Jesus tells the crowd to sit down in verse 10. He says, he tells the people to sit down, and he says that the men who sat down were 5,000 in number. In these days, it was common to estimate a large crowd by only counting the men, and then you could multiply by three or so to get a sense of how many men, women, and children there were.

[13:15] So he says there were 5,000 men, but in all likelihood, there's probably 15,000 or so, people there. And so to feed them, and that's a large number, it's hard enough to cook for like 100 wedding guests.

[13:28] And so this is a huge crowd. Nevertheless, Jesus, I can just picture the disciples shot. Jesus proceeds to give thanks, praying for the meal, and then he begins to distribute it to those present.

[13:44] And you could just see the panic in the disciples' eyes. What are you doing, Jesus? You're going to run out of food, and there are going to be a lot of very hungry and angry people.

[13:57] And it's not like Jesus is giving out these little tiny morsels. He says he gave them as much as people wanted. And as the Jesus' disciples are looking on, the shock, the panic, turns into disbelief as the food continues to be given out.

[14:17] And then eventually it turns into delight. wonder, awe. Somewhere in the distribution process, Jesus had performed a miracle so that the food was not running out.

[14:31] And he says in verses 12 to 13, when they had eaten their fill, they gathered up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those waiting. There was more food left over than what they had at the beginning, and it is almost certainly significant that there were 12 baskets filled left because there are 12 tribes of Israel.

[14:53] It's showing that Jesus is sufficient to provide for all of God's people. Now, this isn't the main point of the passage.

[15:04] I'm going to digress for a little bit, but bear with me. It's a side point. It's kind of interesting to me. First, it's about eating, how to eat, and Jesus says that he gives thanks before he eats, and that's something that Christians do without thanking.

[15:18] We pray before we give thanks to God, but think about it from a non-Christian's perspective. It's quite ridiculous, right? I mean, why would you thank God for your food?

[15:28] I earned the money and I went to the grocery store and bought the ingredients and I cooked it myself, so why am I thanking God? That's the perspective of a lot of believers. But for a Christian, when we pray to God before a meal, it's a simple gesture by acknowledging that ultimately all of it came from God, that he is the ultimate provider, and there's nothing we could do without it.

[15:48] And then secondly, this is really amazing, in verse 12, after this miracle and after the meal, Jesus tells his disciples to gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.

[15:59] Isn't that remarkable? Jesus just multiplied five rolls of bread and two fish to feed 15,000 people. He can do that when he wants to. But he's concerned about the leftovers.

[16:11] Gather it up so that nothing may be lost. I think this is a lesson on stewardship. As Christians, we have the perspective that the things that we have, everything we have, including food and money, all our relationships, all our health, all our bodily abilities, everything we have is a gift from God.

[16:28] We are not the ultimate owners, we are stewards. And so just as a property manager, he can't decide to do whatever he wants to do with the property because it's not his. He needs to take care of it, steward it.

[16:39] Just as a financial advisor can't do whatever he wants with the money that his client has entrusted to him, he needs to make sure he gets a good return for it. Likewise, everything we have belongs to God and so we have to steward it.

[16:53] We shouldn't waste things. We should be, we should have that mindset. This would radically transform the way we spend, the way we eat. And so that's not the main point, but it's an interesting point nonetheless.

[17:06] Verse 14, it says, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come to the room. And this is the main point. In Deuteronomy 18, there was a prophecy that the Messiah would come and that he would be a prophet like Moses.

[17:22] Moses gave the Israelites bread from heaven. He made, through with God's help, made manna, bread from heaven, rained down to feed the Israelites. In a similar way, Jesus is here providing bread for God's people and leaving 12 baskets full to indicate a sufficient seed for all of Israel.

[17:42] And moreover, Jesus is doing this on Passover day, which is again hearkening back to Exodus because Moses, that was the final miracle that God performed through Moses in Passover before the Israelites were allowed to leave Egypt and they were no longer slaves in Egypt.

[17:59] And so by multiplying bread, Jesus is proving that he is the prophet like Moses. He is a promised Messiah, the Christ, who was to come. And so people correctly identified Jesus as the prophet who is to come.

[18:11] And then they make the deduction that since Moses let God's people out of their slavery in Egypt, that Jesus would then lead God's people out of slavery in Rome, under the Roman Empire.

[18:23] And so they tried to force him to become king with this 15,000 strong being maybe the militia. But Jesus knows that in his first coming he came not to found the physical kingdom but a spiritual kingdom.

[18:39] And so he says in verse 15, perceiving that that they were out about to come and take him by force making king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Jesus is the Messiah.

[18:50] He's the prophet like Moses. But John still has more to tell us about Jesus' true identity because he is also far greater than Moses.

[19:01] And we see that in verses 16 to 21. Follow along with his idea. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, God, and to the boat and started across the sea of Capernaum.

[19:13] 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.

[19:25] But he said to them, it is I, do not be afraid. And they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land where two basically were going. The Sea of Galilee was prone to having stormed and it seems like they were, they said there was a storm here in verse 18.

[19:43] And while they're struggling at their oars, the boat is being tossed to and fro, they see Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. And they're understandably frightened in the same way you would be if, you know, someone just started levitating all of a sudden in the middle of this room.

[20:02] Jesus is doing something that human beings are not supposed to be able to do. And so Jesus reassures the frightened disciples in verse 20 saying, it is I. Do not be afraid.

[20:13] He's saying on the surface level it's me so don't worry. But to careful listeners and readers of this passage John intends a deeper theological meaning because the clause it is I can be translated more literally as I am.

[20:31] And that's a key expression in the Gospel of John. This is the first of five references in the book when Jesus says that he is I am. And it is one of seven occurrences of modified I am statements when Jesus says things like I am the life of the world.

[20:49] I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way the truth and the life. I am the true vine. And so this first I am statement I am the bread of life is no accident.

[21:05] when the Lord God Yahweh revealed his name to God's people in Exodus he describes his name this way in Exodus 3 I am who I am.

[21:17] Say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you. So by connecting Jesus' self-identification with God's self-revelation in Exodus John is declaring that Jesus is in fact God himself.

[21:32] He is Yahweh the Lord the I am. And so after Jesus gets into the boat miraculously they immediately arrive at their landing destination and this is reminiscent of Psalm 107 where he says that God raises the stormy sea and when his people cry out to him in dismay that he comes to sea makes the storm be still and waves the sea are hushed and he brings them to their desired behavior.

[21:58] So this is the fulfillment of Psalm 107. Frequently in the Old Testament water is described as an agent of chaos and disorder and only God can tame it.

[22:10] Only God can control the waters and still the storms. And so by showing his mastery over the storm and walking on the water Jesus demonstrates his identity and the great island.

[22:26] So Jesus is not only a prophet like Moses who brought Israel out of Egypt to the Passover. He's also the Lord God himself who brought Israel out through the Red Sea on dry ground.

[22:38] So you can see how we're following the Exodus there in here. Passover and then the trip through the Red Sea and then now we are at the section where we're going through the wilderness. Israel going through the wilderness.

[22:50] That's why we come back to the theme of bread. The bread from heaven. Manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. In verse 25 the crowd notices that Jesus is gone and his disciples have left and so they try to follow Jesus and they find them, track him down and they ask him, hey, why did you leave?

[23:07] How long have you been here? We've been looking all over for you. And Jesus' response is surprisingly sharp. He says in verse 26, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the lobes.

[23:27] On the surface, this seems to be a contradiction of verse 2, which said earlier on, a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

[23:39] But this time Jesus says, no, it's not because of the signs, but because you had your fill of the lobes. That's why you're following. So what is going on here? I mentioned at the beginning that sign is a key term in the gospel of John.

[23:52] John makes the point that the signs demonstrate Jesus' identity, but he also makes the point throughout the gospel that in spite of the signs that people refused to believe him.

[24:03] John 12, 37, Jesus had got so many signs before that they still did not believe in him. A sign, think about this for a second, a sign by its very nature signifies something.

[24:17] It points to something else. The miracles that Jesus worked, pointed to Jesus' identity, who he is. To fixate on the sign and not on Jesus is like being too busy staring at the highway sign that you actually missed your exit.

[24:36] It's like a tourist coming to Massachusetts only to pose next to the welcome to Massachusetts sign, take a picture, and then to leave without enjoying anything that Massachusetts has to offer.

[24:50] They were focusing on the sign and not on the thing that the sign points to. That's what Jesus is saying. They were following Jesus around for the spectacle, not because they were actually interested in following Jesus, what the signs said.

[25:07] They came because they ate their fill with loaves, like people who go to Costco to sample the free foods, with zero intention of buying ancient food, they sample.

[25:21] It's okay to sample food, you're not going to buy, but if you go there with only the intention to sample, you're missing the point. Jesus continues in verse 27, 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.

[25:43] For on him God the Father has set his seal. Jesus is telling these crowds, stop following me around for the signs. Stop following me around for food.

[25:56] I am not a cheap proud pleaser, I am not a magician, I am the Son of God who has come to save the world. I have come to offer you so much more, food that endures to eternal life.

[26:11] We have a knack for getting caught up in lesser things and losing sight of the most important things. We work so hard, don't we, for food that perishes, only to find that it disappoints and fails us.

[26:26] We try to find our identity and calling in life in the work that we do by trying to do as much good as possible in the world, forgetting that only Jesus is the bread of God who satisfies our spiritual hunger.

[26:39] No matter how successful we are, no matter how much good we do in the world, no matter the difference we make, these things cannot satisfy our spiritual hunger. Because we were not merely created to do good, but we were created to worship the good God.

[26:56] No other God or religion can fulfill our longing for eternity. Because only Jesus is the bread of God who satisfies our spiritual hunger. We try to dull our sense of spiritual hunger by indulging in other things, whether that's money and the things that it can buy, sex, eating, drinking, vacationing, working, binge watching, TV shows.

[27:21] These pleasures can never fill the infinite abyss within our hearts. Everyone we love will die. Everything we love will perish eventually.

[27:35] And yet we work only for the food that perishes when there is food that endures to eternal life. Jesus offers us everlasting life.

[27:46] He offers us eternal life and communion with and worship of the triune God. That's what we were created for. So then how can we eat this bread of God, the bread of life?

[28:00] Having been told to work for the food that endures to eternal life, people ask Jesus a natural follow-up question in verse 28. what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus' answer in verse 29 is surprising.

[28:14] He says, this is the work of God. Believe in him who he has sent. The people are ready to roll up their sleeves and maybe go charge into Rome, do whatever he tells them to do because they think it's up to them.

[28:34] they want to know how they can get to do the work of God. And Jesus says to them in verse 27, the food that endures to eternal life is not something that they can earn or produce with their work.

[28:46] Rather, it's something that the Son of Man gives. For on him the God the Father has set his seal. It is a gift rather than a wage. A seal is what is used to authenticate or to authorize something or someone.

[29:02] So when a king sends a messenger out, he sends him out with a royal seal so that everything that this messenger says has the force and authority of a royal event. And so the Father says he has set his seal on his son, Jesus, has the God the Father's seal on him.

[29:20] And that means only Jesus has the authority to give the food that endures to eternal life. He's the only person authorized to do it, to give it. So then the people's question in verse 28 is mistaken on two fronts.

[29:33] They ask, what must we do? They got the subject and the verb both wrong. The proper subject is not we, but he, because only Jesus can give it.

[29:45] He gave eternal life. And as for our part, there is no work, strictly speaking, that we must do or perform. We simply need to believe in him who God the Father has sent.

[29:58] The work that we must do is simply to believe, to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who saves us from sin and death, to believe that Jesus is the bread of God who nourishes us of eternal life.

[30:10] That is what is required of us. So then all the actual work is God's. Our one and only contribution to this equation of our salvation is our sin.

[30:26] Even faith itself, believing in Jesus, is not something that we contribute to our salvation. Faith is simply the bringing of our sins to God, trusting that God can do something about it.

[30:38] Bringing of our hunger, spiritual depravity to God, hoping that God can do something about it. You can think about it this way. We are starving beggars on the street, pleading for bread.

[30:52] And a very generous and wealthy patron sends a truck full of food that will be sufficient for the rest of our lives. and we gratefully receive the food and we eat it.

[31:04] Will we then turn around and pat ourselves on the back, give ourselves a credit and then say, what a wise and humble and gracious beggar I am to receive this food.

[31:19] No. Of course not. We give all the credit to the generous woman. And we say, I am alive because of him. God the father sent his son, Jesus, the bread of God, so that we might believe in him and be nourished unto eternal life.

[31:41] So our salvation is all God's doing. What God has done in and through Jesus is the basis for our salvation and our believing, our faith is simply the means by which we receive that gift of salvation.

[31:56] Understanding that gain eternal life is not about what they must do, but about believing in Jesus. The people turn their attention back to Jesus in verse 30 to 31.

[32:08] Then what sign do you do? 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.

[32:23] So now they're asking the right question, what is partly, right? If it's not about the work we do, then they should be asking, what work do you do? What are you doing, Jesus, to give us eternal life?

[32:36] But then they ask him again for a sign. Now, so we're back to square one. We started with them coming because of the sign, now they're asking for another sign.

[32:46] There's no end. They're not coming to faith, they just want more signs. Jesus just performed a sign. He just fed 15,000 people, 5,000 men with bread, five bones of bread and two fish.

[32:58] And just before that, Jesus healed an invalid of 38 years. Just before that, he healed the dying son of an official. And before that, he turned water into wine. In fact, the whole book of John is full of the signs that Jesus is doing to reveal who he is.

[33:12] And yet, these people again ask for a sign. Why? Because they're not here for Jesus. Because they're here because they haven't filled their lobes. But Jesus nonetheless patiently and graciously responds to them in verse 30 to 33.

[33:29] Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from God, 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.

[33:42] And when the people ask him for this bread, Jesus answers them in verse 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[33:55] Just as God the Father gave the Israelites a sign by sending bread from heaven in the wilderness to feed them and so they can be sustained to their promised land, Jesus says that now he himself is that sign.

[34:09] He is the bread of God that God has sent to nourish us onto our promised land to eternal life to new heavens and the earth. Just before his death on the cross, Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, which we'll celebrate shortly, and he said this, he took bread and after blessing it he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

[34:35] This is the work that Jesus did. A grain of wheat must be buried in the ground in death in order for it to produce wheat and that wheat must then be harvested and turn into bread and that bread that must be consumed, broken, so that it can be food for us.

[34:54] So Jesus was the grain of wheat that fell and died. Jesus was the bread that was broken for our nourishment. Jesus died on the cross and this is the work of God that Jesus did.

[35:05] He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He died the debt that we deserve so that we might have eternal life that only he deserved.

[35:17] The bread that is offered to us is not free. It was very, very costly. It cost the life of God's only son.

[35:30] It cost the bread of God, the bread from heaven. It's free to us only because someone else has paid the price, because God the Father paid the price.

[35:40] And that's why God invites us as we read in our cult worship this morning from Isaiah 55, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

[35:52] And he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

[36:07] Once again, stop working for food that perishes. Jesus is the bread of God who satisfies the spirit for hunger and gives us eternal life. Come and eat by believing in him.

[36:20] Buy and eat without money, without price. The Son of God became a son of man on Christmas Day. The bread of heaven came down to earth so that he might be broken for us, to feed us, to give us eternal life.

[36:36] Let's pray. Father, it is true.

[36:51] Physically, I still get hungry again and again. But Jesus' promise is true. He said, we eat him, by believing in him, the bread of God, that we would never hunger again, we would never thirst again.

[37:10] Father, I've never been hungry again. I've never been thirsty again. Because you have fed us with the everlasting eternal bread, your Son of Jesus Christ.

[37:29] Thank you for sending him. We remember with gratitude this Christmas Day, your great sacrifice. Jesus' name we pray.

[37:47] Amen.