Gospel in Life

Guest (Female): Welcome to the Gospel in Life Podcast. John's Gospel recounts several of Jesus's miracles, from turning water into wine to healing a blind man. John says these miracles are signs pointing us to something greater. But what is it that we should see?

In today's sermon, Tim Keller looks at one of these signs and what it reveals about who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish during his life on Earth.

Guest (Female): The scripture reading is taken from John chapter 6, verses 1 through 14 and 27 to 35.

Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. That is, the Sea of Tiberias. And a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite."

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down. About 5,000 men were there.

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely, this is the prophet who is come into the world."

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him, God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

So they asked him, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "always give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." This is the word of the Lord.

Tim Keller: In January and February, we're looking at these passages in the Gospel of John that look especially at Jesus' miracles, what John calls miraculous signs. So we're getting an idea bit by bit about who Jesus actually is.

Christianity teaches that Jesus was the only perfect human being because he was more than a human being. If you and I were to try to imagine a perfect human being, we would fail because you'd have to be perfect to imagine a perfect human being. But if a perfect man were to be presented to us, we would on the one hand be surprised because we wouldn't have imagined him to be exactly the way he was, but at the same time we'd be compelled. We'd be surprised and compelled, and that's exactly what happens if you're willing to page after page read about his life and the things he said and did.

Now, we get to this very famous of all of his miraculous signs, the feeding of the 5,000, a miracle in which Jesus takes a few loaves and fishes and then miraculously feeds a huge multitude of people. This is the only one of the miracles that is told in every one of the four Gospels. But John, unlike the other three Gospels, gives us this final discourse in which Jesus explains the meaning of the miracle. As we've been saying every week, John chose miracles to give us. He said Jesus did many more miracles than I'm giving you in this book, but he chose the miracles he did because each of them, he called a sign, that is, they had symbolic meaning.

And Jesus explains it very clearly. "Why did you do the miracle of the loaves?" "Well, I fed people physically, but it was a symbol of the fact that I am the bread of life." That's verse 35. And what all I want to do for the rest of our time together is just in a sense meditate on the aspects of that remarkable statement. He says, "I am the bread of life." So I'd like to have three points to my address. "I am the bread of life." "I am the bread of life." "I am the bread of life." That's the three.

In other words, I'd like to first look at what the meaning of bread is in general, "I am the bread of life." And secondly, the meaning of this bread in particular, "I am the bread of life." And finally, why Jesus is able to give it to us. "I am the bread of life."

So first of all, "I am the bread of life." And what does bread mean? Well, for all ancient people, bread meant more than it does to us because people did not have meat ordinarily. Meat was a luxury. Lots and lots of other kinds of foodstuffs that you and I take for granted were not available. And therefore, bread was really the heart of the meal, and it came to therefore essentially symbolize life itself. And that's the reason why Jesus could actually say in the Lord's Prayer, when he gets to the petition where we're supposed to be asking people asking God for our needs, all we have to say is, "Give us this day our daily bread." Because bread simply meant everything we need for life. What keeps you on your feet?

But for the Israelites in particular, there were two very, very powerful historic references that came to their mind when someone talked about bread. One was the manna in the wilderness, that when God brought the children of Israel out of slavery, they're on the way to the promised land, they were in the wilderness, and there was nothing to eat, they would have starved to death, except God miraculously, six days a week, miraculously gave them manna. Manna appeared on the ground in the morning, and it looked like frost. And it was flaky, and what they did was they gathered it and they turned it into cakes that actually had the taste of honey. And therefore, manna was savory, which means it satisfied, and of course it strengthened them and kept them alive in the wilderness.

But the other reference that the Israelites would have known about was that when God told them how to build the tabernacle, the place of worship, the place where they related to God, one of the pieces of furniture of the tabernacle was the altar of showbread. It was basically a table, and on it 12 loaves of fresh, hot bread were put. You imagine how the tabernacle smelled. And of course, the priests ate the bread and then they replaced it. But it represented what? Even today for you and me, to ask somebody out to eat is a friendly thing. But in those days, breaking bread was almost a formal way of saying, "I want you to be my friend." If I bring you into my home, if I break bread with you, that meant we are friends. And the way you ratified a covenant, you made a truce between two parties that were opposed, the way that you showed the world and you showed each other that we're friends now, that we are no longer enemies, what did you do? You ate together. And all of that you broke bread together.

And all of this came together in this remarkable place in Exodus chapter 24. In Exodus, God brings the children of Israel to Mount Sinai, and he says, "I'm going to enter into a relationship with you." But when he first comes down on Mount Sinai in the thunder and the smoke and the fire, God says, "I'm holy and I'm glorious. And when I'm on the mountain, you can't touch the mountain, you can't come up on the mountain, you'll die. I'm infinite, you're finite. I'm holy, you're pure." I mean, you're flawed. "I'm holy and pure, you're flawed and sinful. You can't touch the mountain." But there's a remarkable spot in Exodus chapter 24 where God, as it were, atones for their sin. He says to Moses, "Go to the 70 elders of Israel, sprinkle them with the blood of the sacrifice, and then bring them up on the mountain." And even though they don't literally see God's face, they come near, they have an amazing experience. And what did they what do they do?

In Exodus chapter 24, let me just read this to you. It says, "Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.' And then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against them. They saw God, and they ate and drank."

See, when they went up on that mountain, and even though it's it's it's obviously inexpressible, I mean, it says they saw something like, they sort of what was it? Their his feet, they saw something like a sky. It was some inexpressible sight, and they realized that they were being brought into the presence of God, and they weren't being smitten. He did not raise his hand against them. He was saying, "I want a relationship with you." What did they do? They ate and drank. They broke bread. Because breaking bread doesn't just doesn't simply represent satisfaction, savory satisfaction, and strength, it also represents oneness, it represents peace, it represents relationship. Breaking bread with God meant not simply that he was your king, but he was the friend of your heart.

So that's all the bread meant, all those things. Now, Jesus doesn't just say talk about bread. He says, "I am the bread of life." Now, what is this particular bread of life he's talking about? Well, he tells you in verse 27. As I said, the discourse in which he explains the bread of life is longer than what we had read, but if you if you look at the beginning of verse 27, at the beginning of his explanation of what the miracle of the loaves symbolized, he says, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."

The bread he's talking about, the bread of life, is eternal life. Now, that's what the whole book of John is about, that through Jesus Christ you can have eternal life, which he is calling the bread of life. Well, what is that? What is eternal life? Three things that we see here in the passage. Three things about eternal life. First of all, eternal life is a quality of life. The trouble with the term eternal life, it simply looks like to you and me that it just means life extended forever. No, no, it's a quality of life.

There are two Greek words that can be used for life, that are translated life. One is the Greek word bios, which means physical life, or maybe I should just say existence. The other Greek word is zoe, which has which refers not just to physical existence, but to quality of life. So, when I was when he was 10 or 11 years old, I took my son Michael on a trip in an airplane. Now Michael had never remembered being on a plane before, even though he had been. So here he was sitting in the plane next to me. He's the middle son, so he often felt he didn't get one-on-one time with dad, but he had him all to himself. He was sitting on the window seat and he was looking out. And then along comes these people who are saying, "Can I get you anything to eat and drink?" which is amazing to him. And he said, "I'd like a Coke." And so she gives him a Coke. I remember so remember, he pops the thing, you know, pops it, starts to drink, he leans back in his chair, puts his feet up and he says to me, "Dad, this is living!"

Now, he was using the word life. How? What did he mean? Was he saying, "I am now physically existing?" No, he he wasn't talking about bios. He was living before and he's living after. Well, maybe the caffeine might have helped his bios a little bit. All right. What is he talking about? He's talking about life. He's talking about quality of life. What he means is, he says, "This isn't boring, this is exciting, and I got time with you, and I've never done anything like this." See, what's the difference between existing and living? There's a big difference. In fact, all of us are trying to live, not just exist. In fact, the idea of eternal, it says literally eternal zoe is what I'm going to give you. He doesn't just say eternal bios. In fact, you all know, is simply eternal existence, is that anything to write home about? All of your self-doubts, all of your frustrations, all of the emptiness, everything that you are right now, just imagine that going on forever. Is that exciting? No. We have a word for it in the Bible. It's called hell.

Eternal existence is hell. Eternal life is a quality of life. It's what you do to move from existing to to living. It means meaning in life, it means energy, it means joy, it means fulfillment, it means satisfaction. So, first of all, eternal life is a quality of life. It's not eternal bios, it's eternal zoe, it's a quality of life. Secondly, it's a quality of life that starts now. Again, when you see the word eternal life, that usually means, oh, it means when I die I go, you know, into afterlife and live with God. Yeah, it does actually. Eternal life means at least that, but it means more than that. It does go on forever, but it starts now. How do we know? Well, in verse 35, which is the key verse, it says, "He who comes to me, see, whoever comes to me will not go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." "Give us this bread." "Here's how you get this bread. You believe in me. You come to me, and you get it now."

What's that mean? It can't mean you don't need to eat physically. Once you become a believer, once you come to Jesus and you believe in Jesus, you mean you don't have to eat? No, of course. He's not talking about bios here. You still need to eat. But he says there is a deeper hunger. There's another kind of hunger. It's a hunger for that which moves you from existing to living. And every single person is trying to find that movement from existing to living somehow. You're looking to certain things. There's a hunger, and you're trying to really have that kind of life, and you're looking to things, and unless it's me, if it's anything but me, what does he say in verse 27? "It will spoil."

Now here he's probably talking about it's it's probably a reference actually to the to the manna story. If you know the stories about the manna in the wilderness, that when when the children of Israel were first facing starvation, and then suddenly Moses says, "God is going to give you bread. God's going to give you he's he's he's going to feed you." And the first couple of days that it showed up on the morning in the you know, on the ground, it was like a miracle. It was a miracle. It wasn't like a miracle, it was a miracle. But, God warned them and said, "I will only give you enough for one day at a time. Every day you got to go out and get it for the next day. Don't try to hoard it. Don't try to save it. Don't try to store it up, because if you try to hoard it overnight, it will go bad. It'll spoil, it'll stink, it'll be filled with worms." And it was. Why? What's the big deal there? Here's the deal. God says, "I want you to depend on me. I don't want you to think that the manna is going to save you. It's me saving you. I I want you to trust me."

The reason why people would hoard it is they're saying, "Hey, Moses pulled that miracle off today, but wow, who knows if it's going to be there tomorrow? I just to be safe, you know." So what are you doing? What are you doing at that point? It's not you're not looking to God, you're not trusting in God, you're looking to something else. And here's what Jesus is saying. There's lots of great things in this world. They're gifts from God. There's family, there's career, there's talent, there's health, there's all sorts of things to do that do add zoe to life, you know. There's all kinds of there's people say, "I want a career," or "I have a vision for art," or "I have a cause that I I really want to work for social justice, I really want to make a difference in the world," or "I want a family," or "I just want I just want people, I want there are certain people who I just want to love and be loved by," or "I want I want to get to a certain level in my career," or something. You've got those are all great things. But when they become the main way that you move from existence to living, your main joy, your main source of meaning and hope and security and and and love and joy, he says, "They'll spoil." "Anything more important than me, it will spoil."

Now, you know there's nobody who's ever put this better than C.S. Lewis in that little radio one of these radio talks he did over the BBC during World War II. And he put it like this. He says, "Most people," I'm going to read this slowly because it's so good. "Most people, if they really learned how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or trips or or so on. I am speaking of even the best possible ones. There is always something we grasped at in that first moment of longing that just fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse, the scenery has been excellent, it has turned out to be a good job after all. But it has evaded us."

Guest (Female): Jesus was the most influential man to ever walk the Earth, and his story has been told through books, movies and articles in hundreds of different ways. Can anything more be said about him? In his book Jesus the King, Tim Keller journeys through the Gospel of Mark to reveal how the life of Jesus helps us make sense of our lives. Dr. Keller shows us how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to take a fresh look at our relationship with God. During the month of March, we'll send you a copy of Jesus the King as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the transforming love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelinlife.com/give. That's gospelinlife.com/give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Tim Keller: What's it? See, it's a quality of life that we think this thing can give us. And Jesus says, "It can't. It will spoil." Do you want proof? Look at the most successful people in any realm, whether it's in art or acting, whether it's in business or finance, whether it's in the media, in government, political leaders. Go look at their interviews, or if they're prominent enough, their biographies, or just what you know of them, and just ask, "Does success endure? Does it spoil? Doesn't it eventually start to stink?" I mean, even those of you who just have actually been pretty successful in your life, you know, it doesn't endure. Exactly what he's saying here. "You thought that if you got it, it would bring more with it, more satisfaction, more of this life, this quality of life that you're looking for, but it would satisfy that deep hunger." And it doesn't. You know it doesn't.

So, here's the second thing. Jesus Christ says, "Anything you're looking to in order to move you from existing to living that's not me, will not satisfy you." See, "I'm the manna. I'm the one thing that will that will satisfy you. It's that will give your soul the savor it needs. I'm the one thing that will give you the life and strength." And that leads to the third point, and that's what's so remarkable about this. Not only that eternal life is a quality of life and it's a quality of life that starts now, but secondly, that it comes through a it's not really something that Jesus gives you, he's it. The most amazing thing here is not, "I have bread of life," even though he does say it occasionally. He says, "I am the bread of life."

Now, that is amazing. Of course it's amazing. He says, "I am the bread of life." And if if you want to see what he means by that in the metaphor, how do you eat this bread? Well, he tells you in verse 35. It says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me and who believes in me." Now, wait a minute, you how do you you don't believe in bread, do you? "I am the bread of life, believe in me." "I am the bread of you don't come to bread, you I guess you can come to bread, but you can't believe in bread." But that's what he's saying. You see, he's mixing it up. It's a metaphor, and metaphor brings two fields of discourse together. And what he's saying is that when you come to me and you believe in me, and when you make me your savior, and when you surrender to me as your Lord, you're feeding on me. You're getting the bread. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we get reconciliation with God, and we get the deepest satisfaction of our heart. We eat and drink on the mountain.

Now, question. Isn't that amazing? Yes, it is. Why? Because it makes Christianity utterly unique in two ways. Let me just mention this. Two ways before moving on to the third question, how can Jesus actually be this? But two ways is really unique philosophically and religiously. I promise, I promise, I won't take too long on the philosophy, all right? But anyway, you know, many people have said that the the history of all of philosophy is just a footnote on Plato. And what that means is, if you go back to the oldest days of Greek and Roman, the Greek philosophers, you not only have Plato lining up against Aristotle, even before them you have Heraclitus and Parmenides, and basically there was always this this real question. The one or the many? The objective or the subjective? Is truth basically, is reality basically, is truth objective, transcendent, abstract, up there, and we all have to conform to it? Or is truth personal and subjective and everyone has their own truth? Yeah, is it really one and we have to submit, or is it many? Is it principal, or is it particular? Is truth objective, or is it subjective? And of course there's problems with both of those. If it's objective, then we feel kind of trampled on, don't we? Because everybody's got to fit the Procrustean bed, and no matter who we are, we have to just kneel to the truth. But on the other hand, if you say it's subjective and everybody's got their own truth and every individual is different, then what holds us all together? I mean, what you know, there is no truth now. Anybody can do whatever they want, or nobody feels like there's anything we're really living for. You know, is it one or is it many? Is it objective or subjective? And then Jesus Christ comes along and what is he saying? "I am the divine, cosmic truth that's become a person who can walk and talk and laugh and cry, and you can know personally."

In other words, you don't have to choose between the two. It's just I mean, Christianity cuts the Gordian knot. It just utterly breaks the the historic ancient philosophical logjam. Which is which is more, you know, basic? Is it the one or is it the many? Is it the objective or the subjective? And Jesus, they all come together. Secondly, though, Jesus Christ, when he says, "I am the bread of life," makes Christianity so unique. I mean, essentially, even though they don't all use the terms, every other religious founder basically says, "Here's the way. This is the way to the to the bread of life." "If you do these things, you can get the bread." Five-fold the five pillars of Islam, the eight-fold path to enlightenment, the bread is the divine connection. "Do this, do this." In other words, every other founder of every other religion basically says, "I can tell you where the bread is. I can show you how to find the bread. I can show you the way to life." But you see, if you say, "I have the bread. I can show you where to get it," then salvation is basically through your efforts. You have to do whatever you have to do in order to get that bread. You have to do whatever you have to do in order to get go down that road.

If you say if if somebody comes and says, "I've got the bread of life." So, "Okay, what do I have to do? Do I have to pray every day? Do I have to obey the Ten Commandments? Do I have to love my neighbor? What do I have to do?" And and then the person says, "You have to do this, this, and this, this." But if he says, "I am the bread. If you have me, you've got salvation. You don't have to achieve it." That means salvation is by grace. That's the reason why this very important exchange here in verse 28, it says, they says, "Well, what must we do to do the works of God?" Remember? "What must we do to do the works of God?" In other words, he says, "I've got this eternal life, this bread of life." And they said, "Well, what do we have to do in order to get it?" And he says, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent." "You don't have to do anything. You have to believe that the one who God sent has done it. He's lived the perfect life. He's loved God with all his heart, strength, and mind. He's loved his neighbor as himself. He's the only one who's done it. And when you receive him, you receive it. When you rest in him, you've got it. You don't have to say, 'Now what do I have to do?'" He doesn't say, he doesn't say, "I can show you the way to life," or "I'll be your guide on the road to life." He says, "I'm life." And that means salvation is by grace. That makes it utterly different than any other faith.

Now, thirdly, how is this possible that Jesus could say, "I'm the bread of life"? How is it possible that he could give you this? Especially in light of what we said in Exodus chapter 24, where the book of Exodus gets across the fact that if there is a God who really, really has created the world and who's infinitely exalted above it and and transcendent and perfect and all that, how in the world could the life of God, which is the only thing that will really satisfy our souls, how could it get into us? He's infinite, we're puny. He's perfect and holy, we're sinners, flawed. How do you get an elephant in a dollhouse without crushing the dollhouse? I don't you can't.

So how could Jesus Christ be giving us this bread? And the answer is twofold, two two ways. First of all, he says, "I am the bread of life." Now, this is impossible to get across in the English translation, but when Jesus says in in Greek, ago, meaning I, ame, he says, "I am the bread of life." Ame means I am. In Greek it's very, very emphatic. And here's the reason why. Generally speaking, when you were saying, "I am this" or "I am that," the word "I am" was understood and not said. I mean, in every language, it's a little hard to convey. In every language, there we have constructions in which words are dropped or letters are dropped, and the listener knows that they're there but they're not. They're understood. I I can if you're from Western Pennsylvania, people always uh they they drop part of their infinitive, so they don't say, "It need it needs to be done," they say, "It needs done." And everybody knows what you're talking about, or even contractions where you say, "don't" instead of "do not." There are lots and in every language there are ways in which you do shorthand. You say things, and you ordinarily don't spell it out, you don't put the other words or letters in there, you just they're understood. In Greek, seldom did you say, "ago ame." You said the rest of the sentence, and everybody understood you meant you know, "I am." But this is the first of seven times where Jesus emphatically says, "I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the light of the world." Over and over and over again very emphatically. And when he says, "ago ame," it's almost like yelling. It's like what you and I would say, "I am!" which means very emphatic. Why was he being so emphatic? Why was he saying it like this? Was this just a rhetorical flourish? No. He's making a point about who he is. And that comes out in John chapter 8. At the in John chapter 8, they're having an argument, and the religious leaders are saying, "We're children of Abraham. We don't need you."

And Jesus looks at them one of the most this is maybe I think the most astounding thing anyone has ever said. And it's the most astounding claim in the Bible. He looks at them and he says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Now when you and I read that, it just looks like atrocious grammar. See, if he had said, "Before Abraham was, I was," that would have been amazing enough because what he would have been saying is, "I lived before Abraham. I'm older than Abraham." That would have been incredible. But when he says, "Before Abraham was, I am," everybody there knew what he was saying because they immediately tried to kill him. They immediately tried to kill him. When he used the word "I am," he was taking the divine name that God had given Moses, when he met Moses in the burning bush. In Exodus chapter 3, God appears to Moses in the burning bush, and he says, "I'm sending you to Pharaoh." And and Moses says, "Who shall I say has sent me? What's your name?" And God says, "Tell them, 'I am' has sent you." And it's just the it's just the Hebrew word "to be." But Christian and Jewish theologians for centuries have known exactly what God was saying. God is basically saying there, "I am the God who always am. I am beginningless and I'm endless. There never was a time in which you could have said about me, 'He will be,' and there never will be a time about which you can say of me, 'I was.' He was. I always am," meaning, "There is no beginning, no ending because I depend on nothing, nothing caused me, nothing could stop me from existing. I depend on nothing, everything depends on me. I am the source of all being." "Moses, tell them, being itself and the source of all being has sent you." That's my name. And Jesus is saying, "That's my name." "Before Abraham was, I am." And they immediately tried to kill him. Why? He was saying, "I am the source of all life, of all power, of all being." And when he said that, you realize if Jesus had just simply said, "I'm God," there's all kinds of ways of reading that. If Jesus had literally said, "By the way, I'm divine, I'm God," you could have said, "Well, you know, he's that little spark of good in all of us. He's that he's that spirit of love that binds us all together. You could have and in other words he's that, you know, there's all kinds of ways." But when he said, "No, I am the beginningless and endless, transcendent being, not only who created the whole universe, but on whom the universe every second depends. I am the source of all being, that's me." That's the first reason why he can be the bread of life because he's the source of all life.

But here's the second reason, because he says, "I am the bread." You know, we forget you know this, what I'm about to tell you, you know, but basically because you live in an industrialized society, you don't remember it. If you're a farmer, or if you're a hunter-gatherer, you are constantly aware of something. Outside of the odd mineral like salt, everything we eat has died so that you can live. You cannot live without eating. And everything you eat has had to die so that you could eat it, so you could live. Whether plant or animal. And bread is not just grain that's died so that you could eat it, but you realize if the bread stays whole, you're going to fall to pieces because you're going to starve. But if you are going to be made whole, the bread has to be broken into pieces. And when Jesus Christ says, "I am God who's become bread," what he means is, "I am God made breakable. I am God made vulnerable. I am God come to die on the cross for your sins. I am God come to atone for the things that you have done wrong. I am God come to to become weak and vulnerable and do all the things that you should have done so that you can be saved by grace." That's the reason why I can reconcile you to the Father. That's the reason why we can be friends. That's the reason why my the life of God is not fatal to you when it comes into you because I've atoned for your sins. I'm God made breakable.

And that's the reason that when he broke bread, Luke 22, the night before he he died, the Last Supper, he broke the bread and he said, you know, "This is my body given, broken for you." Now, what are we supposed to learn about this? Let me just give you three practical thoughts. Very practical, though, extremely practical. Number one, this is teaching you that Jesus Christ is not just someone to be believed, but you're supposed to make him your strength and your life, and you have to do that every day. Just like with manna had to be had to be gathered every day, you couldn't hoard it. It's not enough just to believe in Jesus Christ with your brain. You've got to find a way to every day make him your actual strength and life for living. He can't just be an abstraction, he's supposed to be food. Huh? Well, look, when you worry, really worry, and some of you are very anxious, why? Because there's something that has to happen, or you're not going to be happy, or something has to happen, or life isn't going to be right. something has to happen. But here's what you ought to think. If you're a Christian, and you've received eternal life, and you've made Jesus your Lord and savior, then here's what you got to say. "This thing that I'm worried about is a good thing, but it's not my life. It's not the thing that's going to keep me going forever. It's not the it's not the real satisfaction of my heart. It's not the real. It's not my life. It's not the real basis for my value and worth and security. This is a good thing, but it's not the ultimate thing. Jesus is my life. This is not my life." And guess what, you're going to stop worrying as much. You're going to start to relax. You know why? You're feeding on him. You're actually making him your life and strength at that moment.

Or let's say getting you're getting angry. Why are you getting angry? You're very resentful toward someone. Why? Because they've robbed you of something. What is that something? Here's what you ought to say. "This something that I lost, whether it's my reputation or my money, it's a good thing, but it's not the it's not my life. Jesus is my life. Jesus has given me this, and he's given me that. I'm going to be with him forever." What are you doing? You're starting to forgive. Why can you forgive? Because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I can't how can I not forgive this person? And what you're doing is, you're feeding on him. You're you're you're actually getting strength from him. Now you have to do that every day. See, manna has to be done every day. How do you do that? You do it the way you're doing it right now, by the way. You're in corporate worship, and Jesus is becoming an existential reality to you, in a way he wasn't before. You do it in your own prayer time, you do it in your own reading of the Bible. The Bible's often looked at as bread and food. You're savoring it. You're thinking about the things that it says about you, especially in the Lord's Supper, where we literally have bread, and we really we have a cup, and we have bread, and we believe, Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is particularly present to make Jesus Christ a living reality and your strength at that time. You've got to do that every day. You have to. It can't be hoarded. It can't just be you had an experience five years ago. every day.

Number one. Number two, if you're going through a wilderness right now, if you're going through a really, really difficult time, God's got manna for you. It's in Jesus. And here's what I want you to remember. It's hard to change your diet. Always is. But if you've got nothing else going, and you're out there in the desert, in the wilderness, turn to him and he will feed you. He will feed you. He will give you an a sense a savor, he will give you a satisfaction in Jesus Christ that that uh is deeper than anything else you've ever had. And sometimes it's the bad times that teach you how to feed on him. Very often it's the bad times that in which you finally figure out how to make Jesus not just an abstraction, but something that really becomes your life and strength. Sometimes you don't realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

And lastly, receive him if you're going to receive eternal life. If there's anything in your life you're trusting for for your significance and security, for your salvation. There's anything more important to you than Jesus Christ, it'll spoil. Go to him. Come to him, believe in him. Let's pray.

Tim Keller: Our Father, thank you. We thank you that your son has been made our bread. He became breakable. The only reason why you, your divine power is accessible, is because of the incarnation and the atonement, because he left his glory behind and became a human being, and because he went to the cross and died there in our place. Lord, bread has to be broken if we're going to be made whole, and that substitution, that means he had to go and take what we, he died so that we would live. He died in our place. We thank you for that, and we know that even the sadness that comes from knowing that we caused it is healing, it's softening, it's consoling, it's strengthening. Teach us how to feed on him in our hearts by faith by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Female): Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it, and that it helps you apply the Gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelinlife.com. There, you can subscribe to the Life and the Gospel quarterly journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelinlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 2004. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life Podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.