In his sermon 'Jesus the Bread of Life', Jason Dohm explores John 6:30-40, focusing on Jesus' declaration that he is the essential sustenance for spiritual life. Dohm contrasts the miracles of Moses, such as the manna in the wilderness, with Jesus' miracles, emphasizing that Jesus fulfills and surpasses these Old Testament signs. He explains that while Moses was a faithful servant, Jesus is the builder and owner of the house. The sermon stresses the importance of prioritizing spiritual nourishment over physical needs, highlighting that belief in Jesus is not just intellectual assent but a deep, trusting faith that sustains eternal life. Dohm also discusses the role of the law as a tutor leading us to Christ, showing our inadequacy and need for a savior. Furthermore, the sermon addresses the willful unbelief of the people who demand more signs despite witnessing Jesus' miracles, underscoring the necessity of faith in Jesus as the true bread of life that offers eternal sustenance.

The sermon text for this morning is John 6 verses 30 through 40. For context, I'll start reading in verse 22. Let's follow along. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. However, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks.

When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples. They also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.' Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God?

Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Therefore they said to him, What sign Will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat Then jesus said to the most assuredly I say to you Moses did not give 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.' Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who 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 the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me. And out of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And This is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that you will bless the preaching of your word, that you'll pour yourself out onto Mr.

Dome. You'll give him your words to speak, Lord. Give him the message that we need to hear. We pray that you'll open up our hearts to receive that we'll cast aside the cares of the mundane, the day-to-day, be able to focus in on your word, on glorifying you. We pray that you'll bless this time.

In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning comes right out of verse 35, Jesus the Bread of Life, here in our text. Jesus sets himself forward as the exclusive origin and sustenance of all spiritual life. We're in chapter 6. Chapter 6 begins with the miraculous feeding of the 5, 000 where Jesus essentially creates from nothing.

He starts with five loaves and two fish. He feeds 5, 000 angry men. Hungry men. They might have been angry. They might have been angry because they were hungry.

Hungry men, not to mention the women and the children. From almost nothing they end up with 12 baskets full of leftovers. The multitude saw that. The multitude understood that it was miraculous. At the end of that text They plan to take him by force and make him king.

So there can be no misunderstanding that the multitudes saw that and they knew what was happening was a miracle. Then Jesus walked on the sea. Only his disciples saw that. When Jesus got in the boat, they worshiped him. One of the other gospel accounts says that they came and offered him what is only due to God, which is worship, and he received it.

Then last week in our text, a crowd, the people who were remaining the next day, sought him out. Jesus wasn't there, they were surprised that he wasn't there, so they sought him out and they found him at Capernaum. And in verse 26 he rebukes the crowd. And then in verse 27 he says this, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." In other words, He's telling them, and by extension He's speaking to us, He's speaking to everyone, that we should expend the first and best of our efforts to acquire spiritual food. The first and best of our efforts should not be spent acquiring physical food or physical things.

Those are things that perish. The best and first of our efforts should be spent to acquire spiritual food which endures to everlasting life. The people hear this, they misunderstand, and they think that he is telling them that there are works that they must do in order to earn status with God. And so Jesus, to correct that, says this in the last verse from last week's text. Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.

The work of all works is belief in Christ. It's not something that we do. It's laying hold of all that He has done, the things that we should have done but did not. We lay hold of His works by faith. As we go to our text, let's ask for the Lord's help.

Lord, Lord, we believe, there are many in this room who have repented and believed the Gospel. But we also pray that you would help our unbelief. We find this mixture within ourselves and we hate it. We want to believe every minute. We want to fully believe.

But we find so much left of remaining corruptions in our flesh at war with our faith. I pray that you would come press this text on our hearts. Use it to bless us. Use it to give us progress in our faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. I will be subdividing the text today. The first part of the text will be to read and speak of verses 30-33. So please follow along as I read. John chapter 6, beginning of verse 30.

Therefore they, the crowd, said to him, What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe you what work will you do Our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give 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." In these verses, the people require a greater sign. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, the blank is greater. The people require a greater sign.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, the blank is greater. The people require a greater sign. Now who is Jesus speaking to? Well it's a mixture of people. It is those who are in Capernaum the night before Jesus had come to Capernaum with the disciples in the boat.

Matthew and Mark record that as soon as they landed the men of Capernaum recognized him. Jesus is a famous personality now at this time. They recognized who he was and they ran to the surrounding areas to bring the sick to him so that he would heal them and he did heal them. So Jesus, while the people on the other side of the lake who he was with the day before, are seeking him. The intervening hours are spent by Jesus healing the sick." So that's part of this mixture of people that are speaking to Jesus and Jesus is speaking with them.

The other part are the people that were on the other side of the sea, they were part of those who were fed, they were part of those who wanted to lay hands on Jesus and take him by force and make him king because they saw him do this great miracle. So it isn't that Jesus is unwilling to demonstrate who He really is by doing signs? People from Capernaum have watched Him heal. They ran to bring the sick to Him so He would heal them. And He healed them.

They saw it. And the people from the other side of the lake have seen him create out of nothing and feed a multitude. So Jesus is clearly willing not only to do acts of mercy but also to demonstrate his true identity that he is who he is claiming to be by doing signs. And it isn't that these people have yet to experience undeniable signs. They saw him take five loaves and two fish and feed five thousand angry men plus the women and the children." The people in Capernaum saw him healing the sick.

These things cannot be denied. So what is this? It seems nonsensical that people who within the last twenty-four hours have seen undeniable miraculous signs would ask for something more. I'm almost sure it's this. With the tremendous claims that Jesus is making, and he is making astonishing claims.

The people want signs that are greater than the signs that Moses did. In other words, Jesus, Moses never made claims about himself like this. If you are going to lay claims to this, you have to do things that are greater than Moses is doing. If we see that, We will believe you. So although Jesus just a day ago has fed the five thousands, in their minds, Moses fed a whole nation for forty years.

Now we're comparing. Jesus, yes, you fed five thousand, yes, you've been healing the sick. Moses fed a nation for forty years in the desert. If we see you beat that, we'll believe the astounding claims that you're making. I'm almost sure this is what's happening in our text.

How does Jesus answer this? He answers it in two ways. First, he corrects the understanding of what was really happening in the desert. It wasn't Moses. It was God.

Who was Moses? Moses was the one who announced what God was giving. He just announced it. Moses was a servant and a herald of what God was doing. The author of Hebrews is perfectly clear about this.

In Hebrews chapter 3, the author of Hebrews compares Moses to Jesus. What does it say? It says that Moses was the most faithful servant in the house of God. Most faithful servant. But that Jesus built the house and that Jesus owns the house.

So Jesus isn't in any way in our text diminishing Moses. Praise God for Moses. He was the most faithful servant in the house. But don't get confused. It's not Moses' house.

Jesus built that house. Jesus owns that house. Moses just announced the manna. Moses was just a servant in the house that Jesus owns. Even in the time of the wilderness, Jesus was building that house.

It was Jesus. It's His house. So first, He corrects their understanding of what really happened in the desert. It wasn't Moses. It was God.

Second, He teaches them that the Father didn't send the Son to repeat the sign of the manna, but to fulfill it. This is the key distinction in the text. Jesus is teaching the people that His being sent from the Father wasn't just to repeat what Moses did. It was to fulfill the picture of what Moses did. The manna was just a picture that God gives life to His people and sustains his people year after year after year.

He can do it through ordinary means or he can do it through spectacular miracles. It's all the same. It comes from God. It's a picture of God giving life and then sustaining it and sustaining it and sustaining it and sustaining it. And Jesus is not just to redo the picture, He's the reality of it.

So the picture is physical bread that sustains physical life. They're out in the wilderness where you can't grow crops and so God six days a week gives them bread that they didn't labor for. It's just on the ground to be picked up. On the last day of the week, you pick up double portion so that you have a day of rest. But now Israel has been given the land of promise, And they don't need that anymore.

My Bible reading plan had me in Joshua chapter 5 yesterday. In Joshua chapter 5, the people cross over And as soon as they cross over, it says that the manna ceased because they had been brought into the land of milk and honey, a land of abundance. It was unnecessary. God was restoring the normal order of things, which is, He gives you land that grows crops that you can make into meals. The manna wasn't just a circus trick.

The people want a circus trick here. Prove it. Just do something spectacular. When God gives miracles, it's for a purpose. It's to advance His Kingdom.

The people aren't looking for the kingdom to be advanced. The people are looking for a spectacular proof. The manna wasn't just a spectacular proof. It was proof of God's faithfulness. But it was needed.

Now the people are in the land of milk and honey, the land of promise. They're growing abundant crops. They don't need the manna. What they need is spiritual life. They need the picture, the physical bread that sustains physical life to be fulfilled.

Spiritual bread that sustains spiritual life. That's Jesus. They desperately need it. They don't need the man anymore. They need spiritual life.

Jesus gives spiritual life. Jesus sustains spiritual life. So they're saying Jesus, what you did yesterday is inferior. And Jesus says no. Everything that I'm doing is superior to Moses.

He was a servant in the house, I'm building the house, I own the house. The manna, even though it was a whole nation, even though it was forty years, it was just physical. In next week's text or the week after that he's going to say they're all dead. The profit of the manna had an end for them. The profit that I'm bringing and doing is superior profit.

It lasts forever. It's food that doesn't perish. You should labor for it. A couple of final points in this section. The people have said, if we see it, we'll believe you.

Jesus isn't asking to be believed. He's demanding to be believed in, believed on, depending on the translation that you're using. There is a world of difference. Now say it again. Jesus isn't asking to be believed.

I'm telling you something, believe me. He's demanding to be believed in or to be believed on. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, Believing on is saving faith. Believing alone is merely believing a person to speak the truth.

The devils believe Christ but do not believe on Christ. We believe John, but do not believe on him. What a great example. Do you believe John? He is our gospel writer, Jesus.

He didn't write this gospel. John, the disciple, wrote this gospel. Do you believe him? Yes, I believe him. These are eyewitnesses' accounts.

John is relating things that he saw of Jesus with his own two eyes. I believe him. I don't believe on John. Jesus isn't asking to be believed, he's demanding to be believed on, to be the necessary object of faith to be saved. There's a world of difference.

They're saying, if we see it, we'll believe you. He's saying, no, you have seen me. You must believe on me. Finally, Jesus is the bread who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Obviously, Jesus is not teaching universalism here.

Jesus came, He laid down His life so everyone is freed from their sin, everyone goes to heaven. Of course he's not teaching that. This is the offer of life without distinction. Not the offer of life without exclusion. Jesus is offering life without distinction to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

To people who have committed all sorts of sins, who have lived all manner of portions of their life in rebellion to God. Without distinction, Jesus offers himself as the bread of life. But not without exclusion. You must come and believe as we will come to in our next. We hit lots of places like this in scripture where Jesus says, I offer myself to the world, the whole world.

Now you have to think who Jesus is talking to. In this case, he is talking to Jews. What a shocking message This would have been to a Jew. The whole world without distinction. You've thought of yourself as special and God has treated you as a special people.

But Jesus came not just to offer himself to Jews, but to every tribe, tongue, and nation. People of all kinds of backgrounds, people with all kinds of sin patterns can come and be free through the offer of the gospel without distinction. Not without exclusion. Let's move on to the next section which is John chapter 6 verses 34 and 35. Follow along.

Then they said to him, Lord give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. In these verses, Jesus offers himself.

Jesus offers himself. Jesus doesn't offer to do a Moses-sized miracle. He offers himself. The people express a desire to have this bread and they want it always. To me this is so much like chapter 4 in the woman at the well.

As soon as he talks about living water, she's thinking, I won't get thirsty again. I'll never have to come to this stupid well and draw water again. This reads to me exactly the same way. Jesus talks about the bread of life and they're thinking, manna in the wilderness, decade after decade, won't have to do anything for food again. Yes, Jesus, yes, give us this bread always.

So Jesus responds with great clarity, I am the bread of life. It's me. And notice now we have a shift from now through the rest of this discourse, which is a long discourse. It is I and me. 35 times from verse 35 through the rest of the chapter, I and me, Jesus is going to say those words 35 times.

So before, He's been speaking in somewhat of a cloudy fashion in figurative terms, but now He connects the dots. The bread of life is me. He is speaking with perfect clarity. He is making the claims in unmistakable terms. This is the first of the seven I Am statements in the Gospel of John.

So this is the first one. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. 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. You don't have to write fast, we're going to come to them all. There are going to be seven of these in the Gospel of John.

And when you look at them in total, Jesus is saying He is everything His people need. He's everything. You don't need anything that Jesus isn't to His people. So He says, I'm this, I'm that, I'm this, I'm that. So you get the picture that when we have needs, we go to Jesus for the fulfilling of our needs.

My hope is that when we get through the seventh of the I AM statements, we'll have a Sunday, and it'll just be the I AM Sunday. We'll look at the seven together. Jesus is teaching that what bread is to the body, Jesus is to the soul. So all the major translations translate it the same. I am the bread of life.

When you drill down on the word bread, the primary meaning is bread. Flour and water, bread. But it has a secondary meaning. It's often used in Greek literature as just food, a much more general, generic term. That would have been an okay translation.

I'm glad they rendered it bread. Bread is really a staple. It's with every meal. It's found in palaces and in hovels of poverty. Bread is for all.

But it can be a broader term. What food is to the body, Jesus is to the soul. The body cannot live without food, the soul cannot live without Jesus. It cannot have its life without Jesus, it cannot be sustained in life without Jesus. Jesus is the origin of spiritual life.

Jesus sustains all spiritual life. If you come to Jesus and believe in Jesus, your soul will be in a state of eternal care. You come to Him, you believe in Him, not believe Him, believe in Him, your soul will be in a state of eternal care. Your soul will never be in a state where it's not cared for, where the resources that it needs are not available to you. All of the resources that you will ever need to endure and even grow in the hardest of life circumstances will be supplied to you.

Not might be supplied to you, not even will be available to you. All of the resources you will ever need to endure and even grow in the hardest circumstances of life will be supplied to you. You will never hunger. You will never thirst. The promise of manna, even for a whole nation, even for forty years, is nothing compared to that.

The worst that life can throw at you. You can endure it and even grow in it because Jesus is the bread of life. If you come to Him you will never hunger. If you believe in Him you will never thirst. Even in the midst of the worst that the world can throw at you.

Oh friends, would you settle for manna when the bread of life offers himself to you? That is really the question for us today. Will you settle for manna? Just another meal. When the bread of life offers to give you spiritual life, and offers to sustain that spiritual life through whatever life will bring to your doorstep into and through eternity.

Now what does it mean to come to Jesus? How do I come to Jesus? Here's what Paul argues in Galatians 3. In Galatians 3, Paul says that the law is a tutor to bring us to Christ. In other words, the law isn't a system that if you work it well enough you get life.

The law was never endued with the power to give you life. The law only renders death. Do you understand that? Until you understand that, there is no progress towards trusting Christ. Until you understand that, there is only an endless cycle of vain labor trying to earn favor with God through law keeping.

And Paul in Galatians 3 says that the law was never intended to be that for the unbeliever. The law was intended to teach you that you can't keep the law. So that you run to Christ. This is what it means to come to Christ. It means to be taught by God.

There will be more of this as we work through this discourse, not today, but next week Jesus is going to say, you don't come unless God draws you. One of the things that God uses, aside from the activity of the Holy Spirit, that God uses to draw you is the law. It makes self-righteous people realize that they're sinners. In the hands of the Holy Spirit, Many people read the law and they become more self-righteous, but when the Holy Spirit is there and working, the law crushes you and sends you fleeing to the cross for relief. Someone who comes to Christ is someone who has been taught of God that they are filthy.

They used to think that they were great because they were looking around at the people around them and they were at least equal to or better than the people they were comparing themselves to. But then God, through the Holy Spirit, began to work in their lives and to show them that compared to the perfection of God, the holiness of God, they were filthy and they run to Christ. These are those who come to you. Those who have been taught by the law in the hand of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to come.

To understand that there is no hope for you. When you realize that there is no hope for you except for Christ, that's when you come to Christ. What does it mean to believe? Well, we've been talking about this week by week. It means to assent to the truths about Jesus.

Who He is and what He's done to embrace those truths, but also what? To consent to the person, to throw yourself on the person in trust and faith. One hundred percent of your weight leaning on Jesus, knowing there's no hope to be found anywhere else. Our final section, verses 36-40. Follow along.

John chapter 6, starting in 36. Jesus says, 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 the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life and I will raise Him up at the last day. In these final verses, Jesus explains the unstoppable will of His Father. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, It's unstoppable. Jesus explains the unstoppable will of his Father. Look at verse 36.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe." Verse 36 is a contrast that is set in opposition to what just came before it in verse 35 with verse 30 as the backdrop. Now let me work through that. I didn't expect you to follow that. Verse 36 is a contrast. It's in opposition to 35 with verse 30 as the backdrop.

So let me go to the start of that and give you the flow. Verse 30, the people say, if we see, then we'll believe. If we see, then we'll believe. Verse 35, Jesus says, he who comes to me and believes in me will never hunger or thirst." Verse 36, Jesus says, but you have seen. You've seen me and yet you do not believe.

So the people begin this by saying, if we see, we believe. Jesus says, if you come to me, you'll never hunger or thirst. You have seen. You don't believe. Jesus is making the claims of the Messiah.

He is offering himself as Savior. The Messiah is the fulfillment of all of God's promises to save a needy people. Jesus is coming and laying claim to being the Messiah. Jesus has John the Baptist as the prophesied forerunner to the Messiah. In other words, God has spoken very explicitly in the Old Testament about the times of the Messiah and what will come before the Messiah and that one will be raised up before the Messiah to make the people ready for the Messiah.

John the Baptist is that and John the Baptist came and said he was that. When they asked John the Baptist, who are you? He says, I'm Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3. I'm the forerunner to the Messiah. And this was not done in a corner.

The multitudes were coming to Him to hear Him preach and to be baptized by Him. And John's testimony of Jesus was unmistakable. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So Jesus is saying, I'm the Messiah. He has John the Baptist who is the subject of prophecies that a forerunner will come pointing the people, making the people ready to the Messiah.

And Jesus bears the marks of the Messiah, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame leap like a deer, the mute speak. All of this is in Isaiah 35. All of the religious anybody's Meaning, unless you were religiously ignorant, the people would have known Isaiah 35 along with the other prophecies about the Messiah and should see clearly that Jesus bears the marks of the Messiah. That was just Isaiah 35. There are so many others that he's fulfilling.

The good news is being preached to the poor. But the people are demanding more. This is not healthy skepticism or careful discernment. By the way, the Bible never teaches against healthy skepticism and careful discernment. This is not that though.

This is not the Berean spirit that says, I will take your claims and compare them to Scripture. This is willful, wicked unbelief. The people in our text are demonstrating willful, wicked, unbelief. They have Jesus' claims, which are a match to the prophecies of Scripture. They have John the Baptist, the prophesied forerunner.

And they continue in willful, wicked unbelief. That is the foundation for the rest of what Jesus says. If you don't lay that foundation, if you don't understand where we are in the text, and that Jesus here in verse 36 is saying, you've seen me, you don't believe, and in essence that is willful, wicked unbelief. If you don't understand that's where we are in what Jesus is saying, then you'll believe that God is conspiring to keep people out of heaven when you read the rest. This is a necessary foundation to understanding 37 and forward.

That you know that Jesus is punctuating what he is saying in verse 36 by saying that the people essentially are in wicked, willful unbelief. If you don't get that, You'll look at 37 through 40 and say, look God is conspiring to keep people out of heaven. No! The triune God has conspired from eternity past to save sinners and to take many to heaven. That's what we should get from 37 through 40.

There has been a Trinitarian conspiracy from eternity.