Jesus in the Old Testament 016: Jesus the Bread of Life

Jesus in the Old Testament 016:
Jesus the Bread of Life

Thesis: God sent bread from heaven once to continue our life physically.  Jesus has come to give us life spiritually. The first bread of heaven required a little trust.  The second requires all-in, soul-investing faith.  The first came to get Israel into the Promised Land.  The second came to bring all of mankind to heaven.

1. Nutshell with Kids:
1. Quick storytelling
2. Do you hide food in your room in case mom and dad forget to feed you?
3. Why not? (Faithful Parents, learned to trust them).
4. This was God’s original intent, to teach trust.
5. Jesus mentioned this miracle in talking about why he came.  Why do you think He did that?
6. Can we trust Jesus to be enough for us when we die? Absolutely!

2. Deeper w/ Adults:
1. Ex 16:
1. The Israelites strike out into the desert of sin and journey toward their appointment with God at Mount Sinai.

a)     No naturally occurring food or water.

b)     Dependent upon God.

c)      Grumbling

2. Moses prays (implied)
3. God answers (vs -5).

a)     Quail in evening

(1)   Some migrating species of quail return to Arabia exhausted after flying over the red sea and fall to the ground unmoving for the feat.

(2)  Every evening? For 40 years?

b)     Manna at dawn (dried dew)

(1)   Lice excrement (still harvested by Bedouins)

(2)  Dried Lichen

(3)  Neither nutritionally sufficient nor plentiful enough to feed millions of migrating people.

(4)  Neither fulfills the description of 6 days/week and twice the volume on Friday.    

c)      Miraculous! What is it?

4. It requires faith and trust.

a)     Don’t horde→ worms

b)     Then (vs 5-6), Get twice the supply→ Nothing to gather

5. Foreknowledge of the Sabbath in Jewish Culture.

a)     Jews came out of a setting of slavery, where work was ever-present, and there was no rest.

b)     The Sabbath commands won’t be codified until they get to Sinai, a few weeks out yet.

c)      The creation pattern of the workweek is already established in their culture

(1)   Gen 2:2-3, God blessed the seventh day at creation.

(2)  Ex 16:23-30,

(a)  First usage of the word “Sabbath”

(b)  God gave them this picture of Sabbath before the Law

(c)   Rebuke for not following God’s pattern of work and rest. 

6. No clear formula. The goal is to be trained to follow.
7. Not allowed to provide for themselves along the way.  They were to trust God daily.
8. Jar of Manna to be kept as a testimony. Miraculously preserved.
1. John 6:22-59
1. Context:

a)     Feeding of the 5,000 with a Lunchable

b)     If he rules, there will be no food problem!

c)      John 6:15 records, "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."

2. Jesus sets his followers straight about his intentions.  His purpose is to die for the sins of the world.
3. More than being the source of bread from heaven, he is himself the bread of heaven which has come down from the Father.

a)     Eat His flesh and drink His blood?

b)     Replaces the Jewish formulaic approach to God.

c)      In the desert, manna brought physical life.  Jesus comes to bring life eternal.  Jn 6:49-51

4. Jesus foretells his suffering and death at this point in all four gospels, and in John's account, He even gives us the recast meaning of Passover in what we now call "The Lord's Supper."
5. The followers of Jesus need to trust Jesus’ provision for their needs even more clearly than the Israelites did for their food.
6. Manna vs Jesus

a)     God sent bread from heaven once to continue our life physically.  Jesus has come to give us life spiritually.

b)     The first bread of heaven required a little trust.  The second requires all-in, soul-investing faith. 

c)      The first came to get Israel into the Promised Land.  The second came to bring all of mankind to heaven.

Discussion Questions:

1. How are you doing at trusting God for your daily provision?
2. Do you find it easier or more difficult to trust him with your eternal soul?
3. Do you feel like you need to understand the details of what God tells you to do before you can obey?
4. Both Israel in the wilderness and people alive today have evidence that God is able to do what He promises.  Why is it so hard to trust?