TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 6, 2026 - Lesson 25-2026. Title: I AM the Bread of Life

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

In this Faith Friday edition of Morning Manna, the focus centers on John 6:47–48, where Jesus makes one of His clearest and most powerful declarations: “He who believes in Me has everlasting life��� I am the bread of life.” Eternal life is not earned through works or rituals but received through belief in Christ alone. Just as bread sustains physical life, Jesus alone sustains spiritual life. Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore what it means to truly believe, why faith is the only doorway to eternal life, and how Christ Himself is the essential nourishment for every soul that longs to live. Lesson 25-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Mirch, Your teacher's nourishment, your teachers, Rec Wales, and Dr. Burkla, get your body before. Welcome to Morning Manor. Today is Faith Friday,

a day dedicated to learning more about faith in Jesus Christ and all that he did for us on the cross. It is also when we participate in a worldwide virtual Holy Communion. service with saints in many nations. If you believe in Jesus Christ and have been baptized into his church in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you are welcomed and invited to participate with us in the Lord's Supper. So please have bread and your choice of great juice or red wine available. As you eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood in remembrance of

his sacrifice on the cross. Remember that multitudes of Christians in many nations on different continents around the world are simultaneously doing the same thing along with you. This is a beautiful, global communion service every Friday. Our Faith Friday Bible lesson today will continue in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. John. Understanding the deep meaning of Jesus' words in John 6 is important in comprehending the spiritual significance of the Lord's Supper. Now, all morning manna lessons are archived on mananation.com. And today's lesson number is 25-26.

This Bible teaching ministry is financed by faith. and we trust God to speak to his sons and daughters who will support us with prayers and financial offerings. So go to manana nation.com to see how you can show your appreciation for the soul food. We are going to serve you today in five days a week. Now speaking of soul food, let's go to the Lord's table for the meal that gives eternal life. Jesus said to them, most certainly I will tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you don't have life in yourself. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him.

So now let's enter into the presence of the Lord by praying the Lord's prayer together. Author of grace and God of love, send your Holy Spirit's blessing to your children who are present here and keep our hearts and our thoughts in Jesus Christ, your son and our Savior, who has taught us to pray, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and leave us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever.

amen. Our contact with the world each day exposes us to grit and grime and dirt. You are bound to get some of it on you. You can't go through life without coming in contact with the world. Therefore, you need to go to the washroom before going to the dinner table. That's what we do in our homes, right? Well, we are approaching the Lord's supper table. So you may only have a small amount of worldly dirt that has gathered on your soul in the past week, or perhaps you fell into a mud puddle and you've got it all over you. It doesn't matter how much dirt you have on you. don't allow Satan to shame you what is important is that you go to your heavenly father

go to his washroom and get cleaned up for dinner he has a cleansing agent that will remove the toughest grime and it is the blood of Jesus Christ that blood will wash you and make your soul sparkle so let's go to the washroom and let's let's go to the Lord for forgiveness of sins come therefore all of you who are truly sorry for your sins

who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have confessed his name and desire to live in obedience to him come eagerly and joyfully with assurance of faith for Christ our risen Lord invites you as guests to fellowship with him at his table. Now, let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God. Oh, Lord, our God, we come to you as your sons and daughters confessing that we were born in sin and have continued in sin.

We have broken your commandments. We have fallen short of your glory. We have not loved you with our heart, mind, and soul. soul, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, we acknowledge our guilt, we rightly fall under your curse and judgment, blot out our transgressions, wash us from our iniquities, forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, have mercy upon us, O Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Almighty God, to you, all hearts are open and all desires known and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your

Holy Spirit, Lord, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now hear the word of the Lord to all who truly turn to him. It is found in Acts 2, verse 37 and 38. Now when they heard this, they were peers to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who in His great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who sincerely repent and with true faith turn to him, have mercy upon you. Pardon and deliver.

you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Let us confess the symbol of our faith in the words of the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the He ascended into heaven and sits the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of body, and life everlasting. Amen. Almighty God, in your tender mercy, you gave your only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death

upon the cross for our redemption. He offered himself and made once for all time a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He instituted this remembrance of his passion and death, which he commanded us, to continue until he comes again. And so, Father, we ask you to bless and sanctify with your Word and Holy Spirit these gifts of bread and wine that we may partake of his most blessed body and blood. Christ, our Passover Lamb, is given sacrifice once for all upon the cross.

Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia. On the night that he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, take eat. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life.

This is the bread of heaven. Take and eat in remembrance that Christ died for you. After supper, Jesus took the cup, and when he had given things, he gave to them saying, Drink this all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. Praise the Lord. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for you, preserved your body and soul to everlasting life. Drink the cup of salvation and remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for you, and be thankful.

Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world, and blessed are those who are invited to the Married Supper of the Lamb. This sacrament is the gift of God for the people of God. Feed on Him by faith with Thanksgiving. Christ died for you. Heavenly Father,

we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of Jesus Christ, your son and our Savior, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are members, living members of the body of Christ and heirs of your eternal kingdom. You have assigned each saint a work to represent you in the world. Send us out into the world to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, our king. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now. and forever. Amen. Amen. Well, Rick, last week we studied John chapter six versus 39 and 40. And

four of you, I'll just read that real quick before we get into today's text. So John chapter six, verse 39 reads, and this is the father's will which has sent me that all of which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone that seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now, today our focus is going to be on the following two verses, verses 47 and 48. There are actually two very short verses, but there's a lot to unpack in just these two short verses here today. Verse 47 of John chapter 6, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me has everlasting life.

Verse 48, I am that bread alive. Amen. And Doc, I thought we were going to be able to cover a number of verses today. But those first two verses, as you said, there was a lot packed into it. And I just, I realized we can only look at verses 47, 48 in today's lesson. How can there be so much in two sentences? And the second sentence is short. I am that bread of life.

Well, let's talk about it. And we'll begin with verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Well, how much can you teach about that? Verily, verily, verily, I say unto you. Can you really build a Bible lesson out of that sentence? Yes, you can. Yes.

There's a lot in it. Verily, verily means truly, truly. And he repeats the words to mark his next statement because it is a solemn, emphatic declaration from the Son of God. It's not an opinion. It's not a viewpoint. It's not a recommendation or suggestion. It is a statement of fact from the mouth of God's son.

It signals that what follows is foundational gospel truth. Jesus wants hearers to stake their souls on this promise. Are you willing to stake your eternal life on a sentence spoken by a man over 2,000 years ago? This is Faith Friday. Now, do you understand why we're studying these? words on Faith Friday because we are challenged by Jesus Christ, are you willing to stake your future for eternity on this sentence? I am that bread.

Are you willing to do that? Because it requires faith. He is about to make a statement of such staggering simplicity and monumental importance that he underscores it with a divine oath. He is staking his integrity on this promise. Yes. The authority is personal. I say unto you, Jesus Christ is saying, I say to you.

The power of faith lies not in the strength of the belief, but in the object of the belief. Jesus said it is on me. He is the object of our faith. Faith is not believing in a doctrine. It's not believing in a church. It's not believing in a denomination. A moral code, a way of life. Abstract religious principles.

Faith is resting the weight of one soul upon Jesus Christ, the son of God. It all hinges on this sentence. I am that bread of life. Yes. And here it is, you've got the son of man, God come in the flesh that is saying barely, barely, truly, truly. I mean, for us to say it, truly, I say to you, truly, truly I say to you, there are limitations for humanity, but for the divine being himself to say that. It's the most solemn, authoritative formula that he uses and uses it several times in scripture.

and he uses it because he wants to get your attention. He wants your total attention and trust. So this is Jesus' way of saying, listen carefully. This is absolute, unchanging truth straight from heaven. Now, over in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus used the singular, verily, 30 times. However, in the Gospel of John, he uses it verily, verily 25 times.

And he always said it before making a life-changing, faith-defining declaration. That would be a great study right there, Rick. All the verily, verily's in John. It probably would be a fascinating study. And here he's introducing the simplest yet most profound statement of the gospel. What is that? Faith in Jesus, believing on me,

says, equates to everlasting life. Jesus is speaking with divine authority from his Heavenly Father. His words are eternal truth. And the Father's promise of life is now openly declared by the Son. And to hear Him is to hear God the Father. If there's any hesitation or doubt about Jesus' words, I'm telling you, it reveals a heart that is severely wrestling with unbelief. You've got this picture of Jesus standing before this crowd that was seeking bread,

raising his voice with absolute certainty, saying, truly, truly, this is the truth that you must believe. And what is this truth? The second part of this verse, says, He that believeth on me. Truly, truly, truly, I say unto you, truly, I, the Son of God, speaking directly to you, say this, he that believeth on me. This is the monumental statement he desires all mankind to hear. Verily, verily, I say unto you, prepares the hero. for something extremely important.

And what is it? He that believes on Jesus Christ shall have everlasting life. Praise God. This is God in human flesh informing fallen humans how they can be reconciled to their creator and be given eternal life.

The repetition underscores that eternal life is not inferred. It's not earned. It's not deduced. It is declared by the Son of God. Eternal life is introduced not as a theory, but as a certified fact. The messenger from heaven was not an angel, but God's only begotten son.

This is how important the message is. God's only son was dispatched from heaven to earth to make this sense. to make this declaration to mankind. And to this very day, every single day, somewhere in the world, there are men and women being confronted with this question. Do you believe that he is the Son of God? Do you believe that he is the bread of life? This verse confronts every competing voice in the world.

Traditions, laws, philosophies, religions, none of them speak with his authority. Jesus places himself as the final authority on the issues of life, death, and salvation. He does not debate with anyone about these issues. Right. He's not seeking to persuade someone that his viewpoint is right. He is right. End of discussion.

Believe him or don't believe him. There's nothing to discuss with Jesus. He makes the declaration. So the framing teaches that faith is only as secure as the trustworthiness of the one who makes the declaration. Right. Christ speaks as God incarnate. And so your faith must rest on the trustworthiness of the one who makes his promise. Amen.

The promise is a promise. address to he that believeth on me. It's a simple personal faith directed to Christ himself. To believe on Christ is to entrust oneself to him, to rely on his person, his work, his words for salvation. The scope is wonderfully broad, he that believeth. There's no limitation by background. Anyone. Anyone who believes. can be saved. He narrows this. He says, on me. The faith must be on himself, on Jesus. Yes. Not faith in a religion, not faith in philosophies, not faith in good works. Faith in Jesus Christ as the bread of life, the one sent from heaven by Almighty God to save

fallen men and women. It's on him. And him alone is not a church. It's not a denomination. It's not a religion. He didn't come to start Christianity. He came to save your soul. That's right. That phrase, He that Beliebeth on me, you hit the nail on the head, Rick. It's both broad in the sense anyone can believe it,

but there's a singular path on me. There's a singular, exclusive condition of salvation. God does not have multiple pathways, to approach it. God and his sovereignty has chosen his son as the only pathway to him. On me.

You've got to trust, you've got to have faith, you've got to have dependence on Jesus Christ, and you have to do it personally. You can't do it for someone else. You can't stand in the gap for someone else. You have to make that decision. You have to believe.

He believes on me. And it's interesting, that word, believeeth there in the Greek. It's in the present act of tense. Now, what does that mean? That means it's not just, I believed at one point in the past. And so I checked that off on the list. No, this is a continuing belief. It's ongoing. It's a living faith. Not a singular one-time decision, but continually looking to Christ. And you've got that on-mey phrase there. Faith is directed to the person of Jesus. As you mentioned, Rick, it's not a system, it's not a church, it's not a doctrine, it's not good works. On me, he says, on him alone. That's the only condition that meets the standard

for salvation. You're right, Doug, and this verb believeth is present and it's active. It's an ongoing trust. It's not a one-time mental acknowledgement, like, oh yeah, 15 years, years ago, I believed on Jesus. Do you believe on him now? It has to be every day, every hour, every minute you believe on Jesus. It also involves a personal dependence upon Christ, not just a mental agreement with his doctrine. From time to time, I see videos on social media or maybe on a news program, and there will be a prominent person who identifies as Christian,

and I guess several people in mind, and I'm not going to say their names, because they don't know the state of their heart. But when I listen to them talking, they're talking about God, they're talking about Jesus Christ, they're talking about Christianity, and everything that they're saying is right,

it's correct. There's nothing factually wrong with what they're saying. What it comes across to me is intellectual, intellectual. Right. As though I have studied Jesus Christ and I have studied his ways and I've studied his religion and I've studied his doctrines and I've studied and I agree with it. I'm there looking at it and saying, but do you believe on him? I get it that you agree, but do you believe on him? Do you have you put your faith in him? Amen. It's like they just have this mental, intellectual agreement with Jesus.

As though, well, if he sat down here at dinner, I can talk with him, I understand his philosophies, you know. No, that's not how you're saved. There must be a present, active, ongoing trust, belief in Jesus Christ. What is belief? It is a thought that's energized by emotion. You can believe on something positive or negative. It doesn't matter.

If you have a thought and you connect emotion to it, you have belief. We have to believe on Jesus Christ. It's got to be emotion. We have to have thoughts that are energized with emotions and we believe. We trust. We trust Jesus. The faith here is not belief about Jesus. It's belief in Jesus.

Yes. Again, it's the man. It's the person. It's not his principles. It's not his religion. We're not called to believe in Christianity. We're called to believe in Christ, the anointed one, the sent one. Jesus doesn't say, he who understands me, he who gets who I am. Okay. That's no way he says. He doesn't even say he, he who obeys. He says, he who believes. He says, he who believes, the belief in Him is essential. Faith in Christ is the exclusive condition given by Jesus Christ,

the Son of God. Nothing is at it. Nothing is qualified. Nothing is supplemented. It is faith in Him. The faith is directed towards a person, not a religion, not a religious institution. Our faith must be directed entirely towards a person. Our faith is that this is, this is the Son of God. He came to earth as a human baby. He grew up, became a man. He lived a sinless life. He was crucified. He died. He was buried. He descended into hell. Just like we read in the Apostles' Creed today. And he rose again. He ascended to heaven. And he's seated at the right hand of God, the Father. He's making intercession for us. And he's going to come again in great power and glory. That's what your faith is in. Yes. It's in that person. Your faith is in the

person I just described. If it's in anybody else, it's not faith in God. So this kind of faith excludes all other kinds of proclaimed strategies. Our faith has got to be in Christ alone. And what Jesus does here is that he presents faith in himself as the only gateway to eternal life. And as we'll see in other scriptures, he identifies himself as the door. Not only you have to go through a door to get to God, he is the door. Yes, he is the door. Here's the bottom line. It's all about Jesus.

Amen. A hundred percent. It's not about the state of Israel. It's not about Christian Zionism. It's not about the rapture. It's about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. That's what this is all about.

He is the Son of God. Do you believe it or not? Do you have to have something else to bolster your religion? Is he not enough? He is everything. That's what this is. go to the next part says he that believes in him shall have everlasting life he uses the present tense shall have yes right now you have everlasting life right now if you believe in him you have

everlasting life right now the hebrew word means it's a echo and it's translated as shall have presently. You hold it now. You're possessing eternal life now. It is the present tense. It's not a future tense. He's not saying, you're going to have eternal life way out there in the future. You have it now. Eternal life is not a prize that you get. It's not like God puts a ribbon around your neck. You know, when you die and go, hey, here's your eternal life. You know, that's about the way it is. You get that eternal life the moment you're saved. Right. It is, this is a, eternal life is a possession you have before you die. If you don't got it before you die, you ain't going to have it after you die. Amen.

Okay. You've got to have it now. You receive eternal life the moment you are saved when you believe in Christ and our baptized. Where did I get that idea? I got it from Jesus. Mark 16, verse 16. Jesus, this is Jesus speaking. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned. He that is, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But who's damned? He that doesn't believe. see you can be baptized and still be damned doc if you don't believe you're not saying just a wet unbeliever right you're not saved just because you were baptized

you have to believe before you go into the water the two go together belief and baptism so the believer does not work towards eternal life he lives from the life that is already given. We're in that eternal life right now. The eternal life flows from Christ. He is the bread of light. And so we're given this assurance that eternal life is possessed. It's not something we hope for. How many Christians are hoping they're going to have eternal life? No, you have it now. It's in your possession this very moment. And it's secure. Here's why it's secure. It originates in the Son, and as we've learned, he will not lose one. He will not lose one person. So eternal life is grounded in the sufficiency of Christ, not in the consistency of Christians going to church. It's in the

sufficiency of Christ and what he did for us on the cross. It rests on His Word, not on our performance, not on our church attendance. Whoever truly believes has this promise. And that's what you do. You have faith in him. Yes. And this faith that we're talking about unites the believer with Christ. And where Christ's life is, where his life is, eternal life must be present. Wherever Jesus is, that's where eternal life is. So this life is not merely just an endless existence that we're talking about here, but a quality of life rooted in communion with God. So that phrase there is Zoe Ananois, it means everlasting life, is not just about living forever. Even the wicked are going to live forever. But it's the kind of life that we're talking about. The very life of God that gets implanted

inside the human soul. We're talking about a quality of existence that death will not and cannot interrupt. So what does that everlasting lying for look like? It's life and fellowship with God. It starts now when you believe, continues through death, and then it's ultimately fulfilled in resurrection glory. So this verse proves that salvation continues. have in a split second. The moment faith connects with Christ, life for all intents and purposes

is transferred to you. There is no probation period. There is no 90 days trial or anything like that. This is the bedrock of assurance. If you believe you have. I'll say it again, if you believe you have. To doubt your salvation at that point is to doubt the very word Jesus spoke, the verily, verily. You do not look at your works to see if you have life. You look at his promise. Doc, what do you say to people who are unsure of their salvation? I would say to anyone that's unsure of their salvation

that they have not yet truly believed in Jesus as their soul savior. I know that sounds rough. I know that sounds hard, but there's no bones about it. ultimately he that believes on me have everlasting life that is Jesus's promise that's Christ unbreakable promise he spoke these words the one that spoke these words is faithful to fulfill them for eternity amen and if you're unsure today watching if you're unsure watching or listening today I encourage you don't even don't even listen another word. Stop right now and say, Lord, help me. I want to believe. And let Christ

begin that work in your heart and your life. Believe on him right now. Don't put it off another second. Your life depends on it. Your eternal life depends on it. That's right. It's as simple as that. I believe. I believe you are the Son of God. And I rest in your words. I believe your words. Doc, let's look at the quotations from some of the great preachers centuries ago. We'll start with Martin Luther. Yes, Martin Luther said, this believing is not a mere nod of the head. It is a confidence of the heart that Christ is the Savior. Charles Spurgeon said, he does not say, he that is an advanced saint, or he that has conquered his corruptions, no, the gate is wide. He that believeth. That is the only requirement.

Yes. G. Campbell Morgan had this to say. He said that the simplicity of it isn't stumbling block. Isn't that the truth? Men want to do some great thing. Christ says, rest on me. Rest on me. Rest on me. Believe. That's the only requirement. Yes. Alexander McGlorn, faith is the hand that grasped the outstretched hand of God. It is the channel through which the life flows. Yes. And William R. Not said that the life is not a future inheritance, which we spoke about earlier today.

This life is not a future inheritance, but a prison possession. The believer does not die. He merely changes his place. I like that. Yeah. Amen. Okay, let's go to our next verse. Verse 48, John 6.48, Jesus said, I am that bread of life.

So remember the whole study here. The people had followed Jesus after he fed them bread in the wilderness. He crawls to sea. They followed in there. And they're after more bread. This is one long discourse. He's talking to these people. They're after bread.

They want physical bread. Yes. They're saying, hey, if you're a great religious leader, are you as great as Moses? He fed our forefathers. He fed our ancestors with manna. And now Jesus is saying, I am that bread of life. He's telling them one greater than Moses is here. One greater than manna from heaven is here.

It's me. This is one of Jesus' great, I am sayings in the book of John. He's pointing to his divine identity, his unique role. By using those two words, I am. He steps into the sandals of Jehovah in Exodus chapter 3. He is claiming to be the self-existent source of all reality, of all life. Yes. He stops talking to the people about what he can give, manna, miracles.

Now he's talking about who he is. He shifts the focus from the gift to the giver. He does not say, I bring bread. He says, I am. He puts himself personally at the center of God's saving work. He doesn't say, my teachings are bread. my examples to you are bread he says I am

Christianity is not a menu of rules it is a meal of a person you cannot be nourished by doctrine if you reject the person so the crowd was obsessed with Moses but Moses never said I am the manna that's right

Moses was the waiter who served the table. Jesus is the meal on the table. Amen. We just participated in the Lord's Supper. We ate him. We drank his blood. Now do you have a deeper understanding of the Lord's supper? Why this is such a beautiful meal that we participate in?

Yes. You know, Jesus is using that absolute. I am. And of course, that reflects back to those encounters in the wilderness with Moses himself. Tell them, I am, has sent thee. But that phrase I am appears seven times in the gospel of John. And every preacher really worth his salt has a pocket sermon with the seven IAMs, right? And they need to be ready for the, that should be a sermon every preacher had ready. and each one of those I-Ams, seven times, no accident that it's seven times. Each one declares his divine identity and his divine sufficiency.

Now here, in this passage for the first time, Jesus declares I am without any predicate. It's raw, it's a raw, unqualified claim to divinity. I am. I am the eternal. self-existent God. Now, over here, the crowd just demanded more bread.

Jesus responds to him, I am the bread. Not another miracle, but himself as the source. So Jesus identifies himself as the fulfillment of everything in the Old Testament. He is that true manna from heaven, the bread that came down

to give life to the world. So if you can just picture Jesus standing before this hungry crowd saying, stop looking for more bread. Look at me. I am what you truly need. So you need to understand that Jesus is not merely a provider. He is the provision. I'll say it again.

He is not merely a provider. He's the provision. He's the very sustenance. of the soul. And any view of Jesus as only a teacher, right? Everybody loves Jesus if he's a teacher, if he's a healer or a helper. But if that's all he is to, you're missing everything about him. You miss the core of who he is.

He is the life-giving bread. There is no other way. And ultimately, that I am is the very heart of the gospel, Rick. Jesus is God incarnate, the one who gives himself to satisfy the deepest hunger of every soul. Doc, I have to wonder how many people that day, when they walked away as Jesus left, how many of them looked at others and said, that guy's crazy? He just called himself bread. He just said that if you eat him, you'll have eternal life.

is like losing his mind. You know that there were people saying, this guy is getting loopy. Yes. Who talks like this? This was the mentality that started building towards demanding his crucifixion. Because he was saying things that they just said, this is so out of it. This guy is like losing his mind. But what we have here is that Jesus presented himself not as a guide to life. He wasn't a life coach. He was life itself. He was life incarnate.

He's not a life coach. He's life. Faith is not trust in his message. It's trust in his person. Amen. And there's where a lot of religious people miss it. They have faith and Christianity. they have faith in the Bible.

Doc, I've seen people treat the Bible as though it's a God. It's God's God's Word. It's God's Word. But I'm not sure if they know the God that's in the book that they revere. Right. So eternal life is inseparable from Jesus' identity. If Christ is rejected, then life is rejected. Because there is no alternative source.

His declaration leaves no room for partial reliance or divided trust. Faith rests securely because it rests on who Christ is, not what He offers. Yes. And you have to ask a question. Why bread? Jesus took the most common universal symbol for food, especially in that day. You survived with bread.

Every culture in the world, every one of them, even the deepest tribes in the deepest jungle, globally, they have a bread of some kind. He didn't say, I'm the caviar of life, did he? Meaning that's just for the rich. or I'm the medicine of life, meaning they he's just for the sick. No, he's bread. The rich man has to have bread.

The poor man has to have bread. The healthy man has to have bread. The sick man has to have bread. This is a staple necessary for everyone every day. And Rick, you know, bread's not complicated. There's only a handful of ingredients to make bread. Water, some sort of grain, and maybe some yeast.

Maybe. I mean, that's basically it. And so it's a very simple recipe. The gospel is the same way. The gospel is simple enough even a child can understand. So bread's simple, but it's also necessary. You know, Rick, you can survive without cake.

All right? But you can't survive long, really without bread. So Christ is not some sort of luxury just for the religious. He is a necessity for every single soul. Now, one other thing about bread, especially good bread, is it's very satisfying. Oh, Rick, when that bread comes out of the oven, the whole house just smells of bread. And you just got to get a slice. You just got to get it.

The world over here is offered junk food. and by junk food, it could be anything. It could be pleasure, it could be fame, anything that the world offers. But Jesus offers a satisfaction for the deep hunger. All these other things taste sweet, but they leave the soul empty. Now, not only is he bred, but he's the bread of life. And so this phrase implies two things. First of all, he's alive.

right? He is alive. This bread is alive. And it's life giving. And what happens is he imparts life to the eater. You see, normal bread sustains the life you already have. This creates a life you never had. Right? And we can talk about bread itself. What do you have to do to bread in order to eat it. Normally you have to break it, break it open in order to be eaten. But prior to that, the grain has to be crushed. And so the green is crushed. It's all mixed together. It's made, it's presented, and then the loaf itself is broken. And all of this, from the crushing of the grain to the breaking of the bread, points to Jesus Christ on the cross. You know, an unbroken Christ could be admired, but only a crucified Christ can be eaten and received.

This is why Christ breaks the bread in the Passover meal. Do you get it now? That's why he breaks the bread in the Passover meal. He is breaking himself in the Passover meal. When he instituted the Lord's supper, he took the bread, and broke it and gave it to them. He's breaking himself. Why? For your sake.

For your salvation's sake. Doc, bread also must be received. It must be taken in. It must be consumed. What good is bread if you're just admiring it? Right. You know, hey, look at that loaf of bread I have on my counter. It has to be received.

It has to be consumed. It has to get inside of you. And that's what Jesus is saying. You have to take him inside of you. You and him have got to become one. And this bread transmits its life to you. As Doc said, this bread is alive. And when this bread is in you,

it transmits its eternal life to you. Amen. And that's why we go to the Lord's supper. And Jesus said, if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, there is no life in you. But he said, if you do eat my flesh and drink my blood, I will raise you up on the last day. I don't even want to go there, doctor. I think about what happens with people that claim that they were Christians but never participated in the Lord's supper other than maybe a couple times in the beginning?

And I know people who don't participate in the Lord's supper. I don't understand it. I think to me it's the greatest privilege as a believer in this life to partake in the Lord's supper. First of all, Jesus commanded it. But second of all, it reaffirms our salvation every time. I just don't understand why anyone would avoid it, Rick. I just would not like on the day he returns that Jesus says, have we? we ever had dinner together? You don't recall ever sitting down to the table with you. That would be a horrible thing to hear him say.

So, you know, a starving man does not analyze bread. He eats it. So we're not called to just study Jesus. We are called to partake of him by faith. And that's what we just did at the beginning of this. Bible study today, when we went to the Lord's table, we ate the flesh of Jesus, we drank the blood of Jesus. Doc, we'll wrap this up here for today. We'll look at the quotations from our church leaders from centuries ago. I'll let you go first. Yes, I'll start with Charles Spurgeon. This is a great quote here, by the way.

He is, and we've actually said this in our study previously. He is the bread, not the baker. We do not feed on the theology of Christ, but on the Christ of theology. Alexander McClaren, he is not merely the teacher of the truth. He is the food of the soul. We must feed upon him, not merely listen to him. Going back to Martin Luther today, he said this, if you are not fed by this bread, you remain dead. That rhymes, doesn't it?

If you're not fed by this bread, you remain dead. for there is no other food for the soul in heaven or earth. These old preachers were telling people they had to go to communion. Yeah. They expected it.

You better show up. Yes. F. B. Meyer. He said, it is a personal appropriation. You may know all about the chemical properties of bread, but if you do not eat it, you die. You must take Christ into yourself. Praise God.

I like that. Adam Clark had this to say, as bread is the support of the body, so is Christ the support of the soul. Without him, the soul perishes. Rick, he is the bread that saves. He is the bread. And I'm so glad that every Friday,

we gather thousands upon thousands of saints in many nations, together in a virtual worldwide communion service. And it is the most satisfying thing we do. And I am delighted that you join with us today. Come back next Friday for another meal. But in the meantime, join us on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for lessons in the Holy Bible. As we continue our study in the book of Proverbs, we'll finish chapter 20, I think,

on Tuesday. I think so, yes. And then Wednesday, we'll start chapter 21. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here today. God bless you. Tell your friends about Morning Manna. Tell them about Manna Nation. And if they have direct TV in their home in America or Sky TV in Europe or UK or VSTV in Africa, tell them about it and invite more people to participate in Morning Manner. We love you. See you. See you. See you next week. Take care. God bless you. Thank you for watching Morning Manor. We hope your soul has been nourished today. We welcome and appreciate your prayers and financial support for our international Bible teaching ministry.

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