Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1940
“I am that bread of life.” John 6:48.
You will observe that our Lord here speaks concerning Himself. He speaks not merely of His Words, nor of His offices, nor of His work, but of Himself. “I am that bread of life.” And herein He teaches us all to fix our eyes mainly upon His blessed Person and to think of Him first and foremost. He is the center and soul of all. There is a tendency about us all to get away from Jesus and to look rather to the streams than to the Fountainhead. Why are we more taken up with bits of glass that sparkle in the light than with the Sun, Himself? That Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God— we forget to eat of that and we wander to the borders of the garden to pluck the fruit of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I wish that our ministry—that mine, especially—might be tied and tethered to the Cross! I would have no other subject to set before you but Jesus, only. Moses and Elijah are well enough in their places, but when they disappear and Jesus is the better seen, we are gainers by their loss! If I might dig for copper, silver and gold, I should think it no deprivation to be obliged to find only gold. It is no loss to lose all but Jesus! You may wander from Dan to Beersheba and you may not sin, for it is all holy ground between the two places—but he is wisest who does not ramble even there, but keeps to Calvary—and is content to speak only of Jesus crucified.
“God forbid,” said one who was a great and a wise man—“God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul would have considered it a terrible calamity if he had become fascinated, or even influenced by the speculations of the cultured men of His period! He felt that the atoning Sacrifice deserved all His admiration and He had none to spare for anything else.
You know how he fell among certain wise people who were fond of philosophical disquisitions and to them he said, “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He did not endeavor to please his audience by agreeing with them, but the further they went in one direction, the further he went in the other—the more surely to counteract their error. Because they were so broad, he would narrow himself to the one theme of the Cross. In these times, when the world has run mad upon its idols of human thought, it may be wise to be more strict than ever and to stand steadfast in Paul’s determination—“I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
It was Himself, my Brothers and Sisters, that our Lord set before His hearers as the Bread of Life! He did not mention anything of doctrine, or of precept, or of ordinance, but Himself. He says “I am that bread of life.” Of Him, therefore, let us think.
It is of the utmost importance to those of you who have spiritual life that you should feed upon the Lord Jesus. It is well to know everything that is revealed, for every Word of God is good and has its uses—and all Scripture is profit-able—but the daily household bread, the substantial meat on which we must be nourished if we would grow strong for God and holiness, is Christ Himself! “I am that bread of life.” We do not get bread anywhere else save in Jesus our Lord. We may find certain minor things apart from Him—flavoring, ornaments and furniture of the table we may get from some other hands—but the bread, the real solid meat, the essence of the festival—is Christ Himself! So let us begin with Him in our discourse and continue with Him till we close our meditation.
But now, when I have to preach upon a subject like this, I find it necessary to begin a little way from the text. “I am that bread of life.” Bread, Brothers and Sisters—bread is for living men and women, but bread is of no use in the tomb. Bread—shall we bring it to a sepulcher? Shall we roll away the stone? Shall we draw out the bodies swathed in linen? Shall we set them upright in ghastly posture and shall we put bread upon the table before them? To what purpose would it be? It would be a ghastly mockery! If you leave the bread there and visit again that loathsome banqueting chamber in a year’s time, the bread will remain untouched—for until there is life, there is no use for bread. And so, at the opening of my discourse, some of you might say, “Bread is intended for living persons. It is for men and women who are quickened. How can we feed upon Christ, for we are dead in trespasses and sins?” You speak most truly, but yet I have a marvel to relate which meets the case. Listen! That would be a strange kind of bread, would it not, which, being put into a dead man’s mouth, would make him live? Yet such is the Bread that came down from Heaven, whereof if a man eats, he shall live forever!
The Lord Jesus Christ is living Bread. Bread such as we get from the baker is, in itself, dead. And if you put it to dead lips, there are two dead things together and nothing can come of the contact. But our Lord Jesus Christ is living Bread and, when He touches the dead lips of an unregenerate sinner, life comes into them! He brings life even to those who are dead in sin. He says, “Young man, arise,” and he sits up upon the bier. He takes a little girl by her hand and says, “Tabitha cumi”—Maid, arise—and she sits up in her bed! He calls to Lazarus, who by this time stinks, and He says, “Lazarus, come forth” and he comes forth, wearing his grave clothes! He has shuffled down from the niche in the cave and he has made his way out of the dampness of the cold sepulcher. Oh, what a wonderful Christ this is, who is not only Bread for the living, but life for the dead! Pray, you who can pray, that He would come here, just now, and be life to those who are in the darkness of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, that they may live! When they live, then how gladsome will my text be to them, for life needs bread whereby it may be sustained!