I Am the Bread of Life / John 6:35-39
Introduction: The “I AM” of Jesus
If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to John chapter six. The Gospel of John—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John chapter six. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Christian Warren, and I am the Student Ministries Director here at The Well. If you have a junior high or high school student, they come through our student ministries here.
If you’ve been around The Well for some time, you know that every summer we like to change things up a bit in our teaching. We have a lot of talented pastors on staff who don’t always get the opportunity to use their teaching gifts on the weekend. Over the summer, Brad allows us to step up, stretch our teaching abilities, and gives you the opportunity to hear from different communicators and see new faces.
Last summer, we did an awesome series called “He Is.” If you visited any of our three campuses—especially here at North Campus—you saw where we graffitied the pillars outside. The whole point of that was to express who Jesus is to us. This summer, our creative team flipped that concept around into the phrase “I AM.” We are going to focus on the “I AM” statements of Jesus for the next seven weeks.
For those of you new to church or the things of God, the statement “I AM” is profoundly significant throughout Scripture. In John chapter six, when the disciples are in a storm and Jesus comes walking on the water, He says to them:
John 6:20 (NASB)
But He said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’
In the original Greek, that phrase is literally, “Do not be afraid. I AM.” You may have heard the divine name Yahweh, meaning “I will be what I will be” or “I AM.” It signifies that human language cannot fully contain or define God. When Jesus walked out on the water, He was declaring, “I am your comfort. I am your protector. I am your shield. I am God.”
Jesus making that statement carried massive implications. In Exodus, when Moses had that incredible encounter with God at the burning bush, God commanded him to go tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses asked a simple question: “Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?” Moses couldn’t just say, “A burning bush told me to do this.” God replied, “Tell Pharaoh ‘I AM’ has sent you.” “I AM” is the formal name of God.
Exodus 3:14 (NASB)
God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ’Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’
From the opening verses of John’s Gospel, the author declares that Jesus is God. John stresses the unique divine identity of Jesus throughout his entire book, writing so that people might believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be.
John 20:31 (NASB)
but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus makes seven distinct “I AM” statements, each connected with miraculous signs demonstrating His divinity. In these statements, Jesus joins the divine name “I AM” to profound metaphors expressing His saving relationship with the world. In every one of these statements, Jesus is telling us: Everything you truly need, I AM.
Today, we look at the very first one in John 6:35, where Jesus declares: “I am the bread of life.”
John 6:35-40 (NASB)
Jesus said to them, ’I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will 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 certainly not 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 Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. ‘For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.’
The Context: Miracles, Multitudes, and Motives
To understand why Jesus made this statement, we have to look at the entire context of John chapter six. The chapter begins with a very familiar miracle: the feeding of the 5,000.
John 6:1-14 (NASB)
After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?’ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.’ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. When they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’
After almost every miracle Jesus performed, opposition from religious leaders intensified. As that opposition grew, Jesus knew His earthly time was limited, so He intensified the training of His disciples. He empowered them through the feeding of the 5,000, which leads directly into what theologians call the “Bread of Life Discourse.”
This discourse took place during Passover. Passover was all about the bread and the sacrificial lamb. In John 6:35, Jesus declares that He is the Bread of Life; later, He is revealed as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Throughout this chapter, John highlights three groups: the religious leaders, the disciples, and the multitudes—the crowd of 5,000 who had just been fed. After feeding the crowd, Jesus sent His disciples ahead by boat and retreated up the mountain to pray. A violent storm arose, Jesus walked on the water to rescue His disciples, and they crossed to the other side.
Meanwhile, the crowds woke up thinking, That was amazing. Jesus hooked us up with a free meal. Where did He go? We want to see another miracle. They tracked Him down, acting like spiritual thrill-seekers. They weren’t looking for authentic faith; they just wanted to see Jesus perform His next trick.
Jesus was never afraid to stir the pot and disrupt the peace to get to the heart of the matter. Often, He used physical realities to illustrate spiritual truths. For instance, at The Well, our name comes from the story of the woman at the well in John 4. She came looking for physical water, but Jesus offered her living water to satisfy her soul.
John 4:13-14 (NASB)
Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’
In John 6, Jesus addresses the crowd’s physical focus:
John 6:26-27 (NASB)
Jesus answered them and said, ’Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. ‘Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.’
He told them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” The crowd responded by asking: “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
John 6:28 (NASB)
Therefore they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’
They expected a long list of religious duties, but Jesus gave them a direct, simple answer:
John 6:29 (NASB)
Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’
Jesus told them that the work of God is simply to believe in the One He sent. That is Christianity at its core: the simplicity of faith. You don’t need magic tricks or continuous signs; you need to believe.
The Sign Seekers and the Manna
We aren’t that different from that crowd. How often do we say, “God, if You just show me a sign, if You just perform a miracle right in front of me, then I’ll believe”?
One of my best friends—who was in my wedding—is not a believer. If you have close friends or family members who don’t know Christ, you know how heartbreaking that is. You want so badly for them to know Jesus, but you can’t force them into faith. I’ve taken my buddy to church many times. Afterward, we’ll get coffee and talk, and I always ask him, “What is stopping you from believing in Christ?”
His answer is just like the crowd’s: “I’m just waiting for Jesus to show me a sign. If I’m going to dedicate my life to this, I need to see something happen right in front of my eyes.” But Jesus calls us to faith—to trust in Him whom God has sent.
Even after Jesus told the crowd to believe, they pushed back:
John 6:30-31 (NASB)
So they said to Him, ’What then do You do for a sign, so 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 OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’’
They began comparing Jesus to Moses. In Exodus, after God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt—a place with leeks, garlic, and onions—they found themselves in a dry, dusty wilderness with nothing to eat. God provided manna from heaven every morning for forty years. The word manna literally translates to “What is it?”
Exodus 16:15 (NASB)
When the sons of Israel saw [it], they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ’It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
The crowd was essentially saying to Jesus, “Moses gave our ancestors bread from heaven for forty years in the desert. You only gave 5,000 of us an afternoon Lunchable. If You want us to believe You’re greater than Moses, You need to top that!”
The True Sustenance: Jesus as the Bread of Life
Jesus directly confronted their misunderstanding:
John 6:32-33 (NASB)
Jesus then said to them, ’Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. ‘For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.’
Then He made this profound declaration:
John 6:35 (NASB)
Jesus said to them, ’I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
Jesus is the Bread that provides true life—He is humanity’s essential sustenance. In the ancient world, bread wasn’t an optional side item or something you cut out for a low-carb diet. It was the fundamental staple of every single meal. Without bread, you did not survive.
When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” He is declaring that He alone nourishes and satisfies the deep, spiritual hunger of the human soul. Physical food only satisfies temporarily, but whoever comes to Jesus will never go spiritually hungry, and whoever believes in Him will never thirst.
He continued by addressing their lack of faith:
John 6:36 (NASB)
’But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
Then Jesus assured them of the Father’s sovereign plan of salvation:
John 6:37-40 (NASB)
’All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not 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 Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. ‘For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.’
Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him has eternal life, and Jesus will raise them up on the last day. Jesus is the ultimate satisfier and sustainer of life.
Our Idols and the Power of the Gospel
How should we respond to this truth? We need to recognize that we naturally look in all the wrong places to satisfy and sustain our souls.
I can be very stubborn, especially when it comes to going to the doctor. A couple of years ago, I had terrible allergies that wouldn’t go away. Instead of seeing a doctor, I tried home remedies and herbal teas. They didn’t make things worse, but they didn’t cure me either. Finally, I went to the doctor, received the proper treatment, and felt completely better.
We do the exact same thing spiritually. When we feel empty or dissatisfied, we turn to quick fixes instead of turning to God. We look to relationships to fill an emotional void. We look to money, career achievements, shopping, alcohol, or pornography to give us joy and comfort. Yet we fail to turn to the Gospel—to the Savior who gave His life for us and offers us eternal satisfaction.
When anything other than Christ becomes our ultimate source of joy, identity, or sustenance, that thing has become an idol. The crowd idolized Moses and the physical bread. Our modern idols promise that life, happiness, and security are found in our phones, bank accounts, relationships, or habits. But Jesus tells us clearly: nothing else can truly satisfy.
I came across a powerful story in a devotional that illustrates the life-transforming sustenance of the Gospel:
A young soldier who was once highly regarded by his superiors fell into severe alcoholism. His drinking grew worse until, after an incident of insubordination while drunk, he was demoted to private and transferred to a garrison for three years. All of his efforts at self-control and willpower failed completely.
One day, sitting in his barracks in despair, a monk visited him and asked why he was so downcast. After hearing the soldier’s struggle, the monk shared that his own brother had overcome the exact same addiction through the Word of God. His spiritual advisor had given him a copy of the Gospels and told him to read a chapter every time he felt the urge to drink. If the urge remained, he was to read another chapter, and another, until the craving passed.
The soldier was skeptical, arguing that neither willpower nor medicine had helped him. But the monk left him a copy of the Gospels anyway. The soldier put the book in his trunk and forgot about it.
Sometime later, an intense urge to drink hit him. He ran to his trunk to grab money for the tavern, but as he opened it, he saw the Gospels. Remembering the monk’s counsel, he opened the book and read the first chapter of Matthew. He didn’t understand much, so he read the second chapter. As he was finishing the third chapter, the evening curfew bell rang, preventing him from leaving the barracks.
The next morning, the craving returned. Instead of heading to the tavern, he sat down and read another chapter. He began to feel strengthened. With every temptation that followed, he turned to the Gospels. The more he read, the more his heart changed. By the time he finished reading all four Gospels, the compulsion to drink had vanished completely. He went on to live twenty years sober, sustained entirely by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
That soldier found that the only thing strong enough to sustain and satisfy his weary soul was the Gospel.
Conclusion and Challenge
We might not all struggle with alcoholism, but every single one of us struggles with idols. We try to fix our spiritual emptiness with self-control, material things, or temporary comforts. But the only true remedy is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As we close, I want to leave you with two questions to reflect on this week:
- What are the idols in your life? What are the things you are leaning on for security, identity, or worth?
- What are you turning to in order to satisfy and sustain you?
If the answer is anything other than the Bread of Life, you will always end up spiritually hungry. When we forget the Gospel, we forget that Christ alone is our necessary sustenance.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You for Your Word in John chapter six. Thank You for Jesus, who boldly declared that He is the Bread of Life—the ultimate satisfier and sustainer of our souls. Father, forgive us for the times we wander into idolatry and seek fulfillment in things that will never satisfy. Help everyone in this room to turn to Christ first. Open our eyes to the power of the Gospel. Teach us to feast on Your truth and find our complete joy and sustenance in Jesus alone. We thank You for the cross, and we pray all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.