Revive Our Hearts

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In your desperation, I want to remind you: you have a mighty defender. I think that sometimes in our thinking we have reduced the lion of the tribe of Judah to a kitten in our minds. Oh, that we would see him as the strong, powerful, courageous lion that he is.

Dana Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Incomparable. For October 7th, 2026, I’m Dana Gresh. Are you feeling desperate today? Desperate for satisfaction in a world that’s left you empty? Desperate for rescue in a situation that feels hopeless? Oh, have I been there, my friend, and I want to encourage you. It’s been in these very moments that I’ve come to know the heart of Christ more deeply.

So often it is desperation that drives us nearer to him. And today we’re going to meditate on two names of Jesus for the desperate daughter: Bread of Life and Lion of the tribe of Judah. I hope you’ll be encouraged as you hear from God’s Word all that Jesus is for you. Let’s dive in. First up, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth shows us Jesus as our supernatural nourishment, bread that always satisfies. She’s reading from John chapter 6.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Verse 32, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you,” not just gave you back then, but gives you now, “the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is,” not an it. It’s he. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The bread of God is a person. It’s Jesus.

And Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament type of the bread of the presence, the manna from heaven. That manna was temporary bread. It perished every 24 hours. It spoiled. It didn’t last. But it pointed to the bread that lasts forever, to Jesus. So verse 34, they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always,” attesting to the fact that in the human heart, there is a spiritual hunger. Reminds me of the Samaritan woman a chapter earlier who said to Jesus, “Give me this living water so I won’t thirst again.” There’s this longing in the human heart to have that which is eternal.

Then verse 35, Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” Jesus was claiming to be the one and only source and sustainer of life. He’s saying you can’t live without me. I am absolutely essential, not an optional add-on or a category of your life. He is not one of many religions. He is exclusive, the one and only bread of life. And he said receiving me is necessary for eternal life, just as receiving bread is necessary for sustaining physical life.

So you’d think they would have been pretty excited about this, huh? Just like you’d think everybody in this world would be excited about Jesus when they hear that he is the living bread who gives life to those who believe in him. Look at verse 41. “So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’”

Remind you of some grumbling we know about in the Old Testament? Before and after God sent this manna from heaven, the Jews grumbled. They murmured at Moses. They grumbled at God when he sent this manna from heaven. And here now they’re grumbling when Jesus claims to be the bread sent by God from heaven. Why were they grumbling? Because they knew that he was making himself equal with God.

And they considered that claim blasphemous. You see this contest going on between Jesus and the Pharisees over and over again through the Gospels. They did not and they would not believe in Jesus, that he was who he said he was. And they were angered by his insistence that the only way they could have life was to believe that he was who he said he was. And that’s exactly what makes people angry today, when you say that Jesus is the only way, the only way to have eternal life.

Verse 47, “Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” Jesus doesn’t back down. He doesn’t tame his claims for those who don’t believe in him. “I am the bread of life,” he says it again. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread, I am the bread, who comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” in case you didn’t get it, he’s just saying it over and over again. “I am the bread.” And as we share Jesus, we’ve got to just compassionately and graciously and winsomely keep saying, it’s all about Jesus. He is the life. You may not believe in him, but he is still the life, the bread of life. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The bread that God provided to sustain his people physically in the Old Testament could not make them live forever because the wages of sin is death. But that bread in the Old Testament, that manna, that bread of the presence, was intended to point them and us to the living bread who gives us spiritual eternal life. Now that means that there’s a life and death issue here when we talk about Jesus. In fact, that word life or live or living, it’s found 18 times in this one chapter, John 6. This is a matter of life and death. If you eat this bread, you live forever. If you don’t eat this bread, you die.

Well, look at verse 60. “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” These were disciples, maybe that term should be in quotes. They were kind of like those Facebook likes. They loved the miracles. They loved the meals. They loved the mechanics of religion. What shall we do to work the works of God? But when the master said that he had to be their one and only life, that there was no life apart from him, not so much.

They resented, they resisted the claims of Christ. They refused to believe in him, to rely exclusively on him. We just, the essence of sin is that we want to rely on something or someone other than God, other than Jesus. And I’ll tell you what a lot of religious people do, they’re relying on themselves, their own good works, their own efforts. And Jesus is, no, you cannot live that way. You can only live if you come to me and believe.

Well, verse 66, “After this many of his so-called disciples, Facebook followers, turned back and no longer walked with him.” Jesus' claims seriously thinned out the crowd. They had been following him for the wrong reasons, even some who appeared to be true followers. And when it came down to Jesus claiming who he was, they said, no, we can’t go that far. We’re not going there. As John Piper has said, they were excited about bread as their pleasure, but not Christ as their treasure. People want all the good things God can give them, but they don’t want Jesus. They don’t want to humble themselves. They don’t want to say we can’t live without him. We have to have him. No, we want Jesus plus, plus church, plus works, plus religion, plus happiness, plus. And Jesus is, no, it’s got to be me, I’m the only one who can sustain you and give life.

So verse 67, “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’” Some did believe. Some were more than Facebook likes and Twitter followers. They believed, they staked their lives on this truth.

And so we have to eat or partake of Christ, the bread of life. That means to come to him, to believe in him, to cease relying on ourselves for eternal life, to acknowledge that there is no other way to live, to acknowledge that he is our daily bread, our sustenance, our life, our nourishment, our provision, to feed on him. You’ve heard it said you are what you eat, and as we feed on Jesus, in his word, and on Jesus the living word, the bread of life, we become like him. We are changed into his likeness.

Now, if you’re gorging yourself on junk food, you’re not going to have much of an appetite for the bread of life. Jesus will seem boring. His word will seem boring. One pastor has said it this way: if we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it’s not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It’s because we’ve nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. Do you long for more of Jesus? Do you hunger for more of him? Do you feel your need for daily bread, not just on Sundays, not just at a recording session like this, but every day? Or are you satisfied to be entertained with religion but not to feed on Jesus?

John Piper has said if we don’t want God above all things, we have not been converted by the Gospel. To have come to him in faith is to recognize your desperate daily need for him. And remember how the Jews in the Old Testament had to gather that manna daily? That’s how often we need him. We need to feed on him and his word daily by faith. And so we pray, give us this day our daily bread. Give me Jesus. Give me his word. I have to have it to live.

Now just to remind you as we close, and that is this: for us to have that eternal life, Jesus, the bread of life, had to be broken and die. Remember at the feeding of the 5,000 how he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and then the disciples gave the bread to the crowds? Remember at the Last Supper as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” A picture of what was to happen within just a matter of hours as his body would be broken there on Calvary so that the hunger of the world could be fed. And so the Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 11 tells us, on the night when he was betrayed took bread, he broke it, and he said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Dana Gresh: Mmm, what good news from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. Now, if you’re spiritually starving today, desperate for something to truly satisfy your soul, look no further than Jesus. He was broken for you so that you could experience eternal fullness in him. To learn more about what it means to trust in Jesus for salvation, you can visit reviveourhearts.com/goodnews or contact a member of our team at 1-800-569-5959. Someone there would love to tell you more about how you can receive the bread of life.

You know this Jesus of ours, he’s not only satisfying, he is strong. Our Bible calls him the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Here’s Nancy again to tell you more about this mighty name.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We’re coming back to Revelation chapter 5 now. We see that Jesus is depicted as a lion, tying him to God who was the lion in the Old Testament. And one of the elders said, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” Jesus alone is worthy. Jesus alone is able. Jesus alone has the authority to open the scroll that contains God’s eternal purposes. He is able to prevail where others have failed. He is omnipotent where others are impotent. He is essential to the unfolding of God’s eternal purposes. People talk today about liking God, loving God, worshipping God, but they don’t want Jesus. No, you can’t have God and not have Jesus. Jesus is essential to the eternal decrees and purposes of God, for he is God. And God’s eternal purposes for this world will not and cannot happen apart from Jesus.

Now John is told that a lion has conquered and has prevailed to open the scroll. But he hasn’t seen the lion. He’s just heard about the lion. So what do you think John would expect to see next in his vision? A lion, right? But what John sees is something entirely different. Let’s go on with verse 6 in Revelation 5. “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb.”

He just heard that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed, and then what does he see? A lamb. Not a lion, but a lamb. “I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb.”

So here is the risen Christ, the ascended Christ, in the throne room of heaven, who is announced and described to John as a conquering lion. But he actually appears as a slain lamb. So which is he? Is he a lion, or is he a lamb? Those seem contradictory to me, don’t they to you? I mean, two animals could hardly be more opposite of each other than a lion and a lamb, right? A lion is strong, a lamb is weak. A lion is dangerous, a lamb is harmless. A lion devours and preys on other animals, and lambs get devoured and they’re easily preyed upon.

The truth is the lion is also a lamb. John Piper says it this way, I love this sentence: he says Jesus is a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion. He is both. Many years ago, back in the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards preached a message on these verses, Revelation 5 verses 5 and 6. And listen to the title of his sermon: it was called "The Admirable Conjunction of Diverse Excellencies in Christ Jesus."

Now we wouldn’t talk that way today, but I love how he describes that: the admirable, this is beautiful, the conjunction, the coming together, of diverse, different, excellencies, and they come together in Christ Jesus. He says in that message, the lion and the lamb, though very diverse kinds of creatures, yet have each their peculiar excellencies. The lion excels in strength and in the majesty of his appearance and voice. The lamb excels in meekness and patience. But we see that Christ is in this text compared to both, because the diverse excellencies of both wonderfully meet in him.

The supreme, paradoxical, diverse excellencies of Christ coming together: the triumphant conquering lion is also the slain lamb. And the lion is worthy to open the scroll that has been sealed because he has conquered. Now you think of lions as conquerors, as strong and powerful. But how has the lion conquered? Well, we find this in verse 9, and we see that he is conquered not by his final judgment on the wicked, not by his fierce voice and powers, but he is conquered through his atoning death on the cross.

We see in verse 9, and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you,” the lion, the lamb, “to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” The lion’s victory, the lion overcoming, the lion’s triumph was accomplished by his death as a lamb. He conquered by his suffering.

And as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus is both the protector of his people, and he is the prosecutor or the avenger of his enemies. You will meet him as one or the other. He will either be your protector if you are one of his people, or he will one day be your prosecutor if you are one of his enemies. In that sermon, Jonathan Edwards says, unless your enemies can conquer this lion, they shall not be able to destroy or hurt you. Unless they are stronger than he, they shall not be able to hinder your happiness. Are there some people who give you trouble? Maybe it’s somebody you go to school with, maybe it’s a boss, maybe it’s a neighbor, or somebody that’s difficult to deal with, somebody who keeps coming up against you. And you think this person is destroying my happiness. No, that person cannot destroy your happiness. That person has to deal with the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

And let me repeat what Jonathan Edwards says: unless your enemies can conquer this lion, they shall not be able to destroy or hurt you. Unless they are stronger than he, is your enemy any stronger than Jesus? Unless they are stronger than he, they shall not be able to hinder your happiness. Now they can make your life uncomfortable, but it’s only for a while. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, and he is the protector of his people. But he’s also the prosecutor, the avenger of his enemies. And at the final judgment, he will appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah to conquer all of his enemies. He will execute the judgment and the wrath of God against those who have rejected him, and all the world will tremble before him.

And so we see that Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, has conquered. And here’s the good news: if you’re one of the children of God, then you are a part of a conquering kingdom.