Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 7

Message Title: The Bread of Life

the age of jubilee is an age of ecstasy. if we have never experienced ecstasy, we are not in the reality of Christ as jubilee, where everything is satisfying to our heart.  if we have the word of grace, we can be in jubilee anytime and anywhere. 

we need the Lord to unveil to us what it means for Christ to be the bread of life to us. what do we do with bread?? we eat bread. so the Lord is introducing Himself in such a way. then the question is what is our taste? what is our appetite? are we eating the bread of life sufficiently? 

Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

this reminds us of Genesis, that there were all kinds of trees in the garden of Eden, pleasant to eyes and good for food. this shows us that in the very beginning at the time of creation, God is indicating to man that He wants man to eat. but there is also a warning in Genesis 2:17, that whoever eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil will surely die. it is very clear that God desires man to eat, and to enjoy life. we need to check with ourselves: what is the nature of our diet? On what do we spend time to eat? 

I. if we read John 6 carefully, we should have a deep impression of this chapter and pay attention to the sequence of seven crucial points

1. the Lord is the bread of life

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.

2. the Lord gives His bread of life for us to eat

John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.

3. the Lord also gives His blood for us to drink

John 6:53 Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves.

4. the Lord not only died but also resurrected

John 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.

the Lord was slain on behalf of us. He rose from the dead, because His desire was to abide in us and that we could abide in Him. 

5. Because Christ lives in us, we live because of Him and live before God

John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

for us to live the Christian life, we need to eat HIm as the bread of life. this is a matter of eating. 

6. His Spirit, not His physical flesh, gives us life and the life supply 

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

7. The Spirit is in the Lord's spoen words; His words are spirit and life

II. Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is a detailed discourse on the Lord Jesus being the bread of life; He declared "I am the bread of life"

there are many other things for us to eath, which are not healthy and even poisonour, which are not able to give us satisfaction. that is why the Lord unveils to us that He is the true bread. the more we take in the poisonous things, the more we will develop a taste for these evil things. 

when we eat this bread and digest it, it becomes our constitution, and we are joined and mingled with the Lord as one. 

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

since Christ is the Spirit, we can contact Him as the Spirit within us. Because He is the life-giving Spirit, we can feed upon and assimilate Him as our food. in order to receive the Lord Jesus as the bread of life, our life supply to nourish us, we need to see that He is the life-giving Spirit and that this Spirit is embodied in the Word. Daily we need to come to the Lord and touch Him as the Spirit in the Word; if we do this, we will feed on Christ as the bread of life. 

if we receve the Word, we will have the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit within us, we will have Christ as the inner supply of life.