Bread of Life

Good afternoon to all of you. Hope you're enjoying the days of Unleavened Bread. And thank you, Harmony, for that beautiful song. There's several bottles of water up here. I'm not sure if there's something expected, but I could get really thirsty. I see there are a number of visitors glad to see, and I know those of you on the webcast. I've got family at home, and they're tuning in and glad for that.

Some of you have asked about my father-in-law, and I'll say he's doing better. He has some days better than others. But God has been merciful, and that's a good thing. This time of year, in our Bible study and in the messages we give, there are a couple of major events that we come back to over and over again, recorded in Scripture.

The obvious big one is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the most important event in human history. And I don't say that lightly. What a joy it is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, applying His sacrifice to our sins, paying the death penalty that all of us have earned. The other event is one that happened centuries before, with, of course, many elements of it symbolizing that to come with Jesus Christ's sacrifice. And that is, I'm speaking of the Exodus. Israel going out of Egypt. As they left captivity in Egypt, we understand that we leave the slavery to sin because of Jesus Christ setting us free.

The story of the Exodus had many elements that were inspiring, things that can teach us and motivate us. I want to focus as part of my introduction on one that probably happened actually a little after the days of Unleavened Bread. It occurs in Exodus chapter 16. I'll mostly tell the story rather than quote, but if you want to turn there, you can follow along. We know the Israelites had left Egypt and they traveled many days, including going through the Red Sea that God parted for them.

They traveled enough days to start running out of food. And soon, some of them became rather alarmed because, as you know from reading the story, I was going to say, if you've traveled in the Sinai Desert, which I haven't, but I've seen photos, it's pretty barren. And there's no in-and-out burgers along the way. And so they become alarmed. They began accusing Moses of bringing them out in the wilderness for the purpose of killing them with hunger. Some of them even started noting, we ate to the full back in Egypt.

This is one of many times that I think they slightly, maybe more than slightly, exaggerated what little good there had been in their lives in Egypt. Some of them even said, we need to go back. This is a dire situation. And Moses, of course, couldn't solve it. But God could. God showed his presence and he promised Israel that he would fill them with bread to the full. It was a different type of bread. And it seems, well, we know God showed his presence in the morning. There on the ground it was.

It looked like it was a type of grain. Bible tells us it could be made into a flower, it could be baked, it could be boiled, or do whatever it was. What was it? Well, I don't have the answer. What was it is what they were saying. In Hebrew, it came out as manna. What is it? And that's what they called it. Well, you know, it was a miracle. Later on it was described as bread from heaven. God gave them very careful instructions about gathering it. Go out every morning and gather what you need.

And those who gathered a whole lot didn't really have much left over. Those who gathered it seemed like only a little still had enough, but could not keep any extra. And we know because some of them tried. What was it like the next morning? It stank. There were worms in it. You can't eat that. But God worked some miracles to teach them about the Sabbath. Am I right? Of course I'm right. I read it in here. On Friday, sorry, it's none of my notes to say that, but on Friday they could gather twice as much. And many of them knew that they should. They gathered it up in Sabbath morning. No worms.

No stink. Out on the ground also no manna. You better have gathered twice as much on Friday, or you'll have an unexpected fast. Obviously God was teaching a great lesson through the manna about His Sabbath day. And I thought that was appropriate because we're here keeping the Sabbath today. The Sabbath is something God underlined and showed as important to Him, and He used manna to teach that lesson. There is another important lesson in that, though. And one that maybe we don't talk about as much, but very important. The manna was there on the ground every morning, six mornings out of the week. But in chapter 16 of Exodus in verse 21, towards the end it happens to mention, as the sun goes up and gets warm, what was out there melted away.

You had to go get it while it was there, or you didn't get any. This seemed to be another way to show you had to trust, or you, they had to trust and rely on God that they needed each day. Each day God provided. And so the people had to trust and rely on Him. They had to subsist on what God provided. God provided for them daily. Not weekly, not monthly. And this brings to mind what Christ taught His disciples. If you remember one of the times they asked Him to teach them to pray, and well, more than once probably happened, but I'm referring to Matthew 6 verse 11.

When He's giving them what we call the model prayer, He said part of that prayer should be, Give us this day our daily bread. This daily. Give us this day our daily bread. He didn't say, Father, give me a week's supply of bread, and I'll see you again next week. You know, I refer to that many times to say that's a reminder that we need to pray each and every day. Otherwise, we could ask for a daily surprise. Daily supply. I don't mind. Lips are not working today.

Slow down a little bit.

But there are many physical habits that we need to do every day. As physical beings, we need food. Except for occasional fasting, we need it each and every day. Matter of fact, typically several times a day. And I don't know what it is about unleavened bread. I feel like I get hungry sooner after. Maybe because I'm not making a nice fat sandwich with turkey and cheese and mustard and all those things I like. Again, not in my notes. But we know from this that physical food is going to preserve physical life.

Our goal, though, is something beyond the physical. Beyond physical life. And that's where I want to tie this into another event with some parallels with that of Exodus 16. Because Jesus Christ made a clear distinction between physical bread and spiritual bread. It's in John 6. John 6 is what I'm referring to. And again, I'm going to summarize part of the story because if you look there, John 6 is a pretty long chapter.

So I'll summarize the start of the story before I do read some scriptures there. But at the beginning it describes how Jesus and His disciples traveled, it seems, across the Sea of Galilee, probably to the east. And it says it was a pretty deserted area. And a large crowd gathered, thousands. Jesus felt obligated to feed them because similar to where the Israelites were traveling, there was no in-and-out burger. I should have said Wendy's. We have Wendy's around here. I haven't seen an in-and-out burger since last time I traveled west.

Sorry, I was just thinking about that burger on the nice fluffy bun that we're not having.

Yeah, if you put a burger on a matzo, it doesn't work the same way. Let's get back to the story. Of course, the crowd was there. Jesus asked His disciples, what are we going to do? Although He knew what He was going to do. There's a fellow there with five barley loaves, a couple of fish. Jesus had them sit down. By the way, it does mention early in that chapter that it was the Passover season. Not that this was on Passover, but He fed all of them. And there was plenty left over. Kind of like with manna. Those who wanted more had all they wanted. Those who took a little had enough. And the people were quite happy. Free lunch. So even though later Jesus took pains to get away from this crowd without them seeing Him. When He went up on the mountain, He sent the disciples away. He finds them again by walking on the water. And that's a whole different story we'll pass. The people that liked the free lunch looked for Him. Eventually they found Him all the way back in Galilee. Here's what I want to pick up in chapter 26. No, chapter 6, verse 26, because it seems that Jesus perceived that a lot of people following Him were motivated by their stomachs. They find Him, they say, how did you get here, Rabbi? Jesus answered and said, most assuredly I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Okay, you're after another free lunch. But He doesn't stop there. He goes on to tell them what really matters in the next verse. Don't labor for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. Jesus isn't saying what you want. I can't give. He says He will give it. Which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set His seal on Him. Now, as you know from this chapter, there's some back and forth following, and it includes people suggesting that Jesus work another miracle. Because He says the work of God is that you believe in Him who He sent. Well, do a miracle so He can believe on you. And by the way, Moses gave our forefathers manna. Maybe you should do that. You know, again, they're thinking with their stomachs, I think. Let's drop down to verse 32. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Again, they're thinking with their stomachs, so they say immediately, Well, Lord, give us this bread. Always. You know, whatever bread this is, we want that. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

That's not probably something they were expecting. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst. Now, we understand that He meant would never hunger and thirst spiritually. I'm going to say that because I believe we partake of that bread, and I got hungry this morning. Matter of fact, I had a little snack before we came to services today. Better stop. I don't want to think with my stomach like the people back then. Let's move ahead, though, because again, there's this question. In verse 48, Christ repeats, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. Now, I remember when I was little, I thought, wow, was that manna poisonous? No, it doesn't mean they died because of the manna, but He meant it only preserved physical life. And that alone is miraculous and amazing. They ate manna for 40 years and stayed healthy and well. When God provides food, He provides good stuff. But it didn't give them eternal life. It was only preserving physical life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. But this is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. He was speaking of Himself. Jesus said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, He will live forever. And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. That caused some consternation. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now, I'm imagining for most of us in the room, this sounds really familiar because just a few days ago, we read this as part of the Passover ceremony. And what we also read was how Christ explained, made it clear that He was speaking symbolically. He never meant cannibalism. I'll refer to this, it's in Luke 22, verse 19. Luke 22, verse 19 is where it says, He took bread, gave thanks and broke it. And He gave it to them and said, this is my body. Now, we don't believe in the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. That bread doesn't become Christ's actual body. It's a symbol of His body. He says, My body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise, He took the cup, the wine, and He said, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. This helps us to understand that in the Passover ceremony, we symbolically feed on Jesus Christ. We take Him in. He, His nature becomes a part of us. Not by physical eating, though. Physically, we take a small piece of bread and a small portion of wine as a symbol of Jesus Christ in us, living in us.

I would like you to turn with me back to Exodus 12. Exodus 12, beginning in verse 17.

That we can see that symbolism, I believe in a way, is not just for Passover, but for this seven-day festival.

Of course, we're on, I believe, day three. It's funny how I always want to count. Exodus 12, verse 17, which I should turn there myself, says, So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. I love that grammatical form here, because this command is given before God did bring them out. But He says, by the time you're keeping the days of unleavened bread, I will have brought you out. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations. And we're still keeping that, because it's part of our generations. And the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. How many days? Seven days no leaven shall be found. I'll point this out, although it's not really a part of my message. When it says the fourteenth at evening, it's meaning the sundown that ends the fourteenth and begins the fifteenth. Because if it was the beginning of the fourteenth, we'd be eating unleavened bread for eight days. When I teach this at ABC, I get the whiteboard out, and I draw a simple mathematical formula. Fourteen does not equal fifteen. So the fourteenth day is the Passover, as God's Word clearly says, and the fifteenth is the first day of unleavened bread. But that sundown that ends the fourteenth and begins the fifteenth is the sundown of... It marks the distinction between those days. So starting the fifteenth, we eat unleavened bread for seven days. As it says in verse 19, No leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or a native. You shall eat nothing leavened, and all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.

We focus typically on the leaven-picturing sin. And I don't want to not focus on that, because we need to put sin out of our lives. We remove leaven from our quarters. I say quarters rather than just dwellings, because I do my car, too. I love to eat while I'm driving. And boy, does that make a mess. And same for my office. Vacuuming a computer keyboard has always been one of those hassles. But we don't just put the leaven out, we put unleavened bread in. And yes, I'm echoing and overlapping somewhat the messages we heard on the first Holy Day. I was a little bit worried about Mr. Rangel and Mr. Myers just covering all my message, and I'd have to write a new sermon. But I think we're complementing each other well. As you know, in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 8, Paul refers to the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Unleavened bread can symbolize sincerity and truth. Okay, that's part of the symbolism. I want to refer to what Jesus said in John 14, verse 6. I was doing some... I don't know if I call it bad math, but you do get some things that this equals that in the Bible. And John 14, verse 6, Jesus tells the disciples something about Himself. And very simply, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Including, you know, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the truth, also the way and the life. But I want to focus on the truth because we're eating unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And I'm making the case that taking this unleavened bread, as we do during these seven days, pictures taking Jesus Christ into our life, subsisting on Him spiritually. Of course, He's the bread of life. He's what we need to sustain spiritual life.

How do we take Him in, though? Not just spiritually. Galatians 2, verse 20 is one of my favorite verses on the topic. Maybe I will turn there because I'm chuckling. I refer to this as class all the time, and I always get the last part of it wrong. But Galatians 2, 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. And this next part is what I really want to focus on. But Christ lives in me. Paul said, Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I think each and every one of us who have God's Spirit can honestly say, Christ lives in me. Christ is living in us. That's complemented by what it says in 1 John 3, verse 24, which I'll flip to very quickly. 1 John 3, verse 24, Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him. That could say, lives in him and he in him. By this we know that he abides in us. And this he is Jesus Christ. He abides in us by the Spirit which he has given us.

Jesus Christ lives in us. He becomes part of us through the Holy Spirit that's in us. So He's the bread of life. We take that in and it's sustaining spiritual life. That's what leads to eternal life. If all we had was manna, we'll eventually be like the Israelites and be dead. Of course, I hate to say it, all of us physically, yeah, that's going to happen. But there's a resurrection and there's an eternal life to look forward to. Jesus Christ lives in us. And I propose that as we eat that unleavened bread during this week, that should remind us of it and symbolize that. Now, this brought to mind something, and I don't remember how many years ago, maybe it's something that recurs in the church. There's been a question, do we have to eat a piece of unleavened bread each and every day? And some have said, absolutely yes. And our traditional teaching in the church was that, well, whatever bread you do eat has to be unleavened. And some have said, we don't have to eat a piece of unleavened bread every day. I don't really want to get into that because in some ways when I first heard of it, I said, well, that's kind of silly. And no, I know it's not silly for those who are engaged in it, but I wondered if it came out of the fact that some people don't like matzos or rycrisps. Ew, rycrisp. I don't care for them much either. And I don't confess matzos aren't my favorite. I don't see Mr. McNeely here. He probably is here in the AM. But I concur with his description of matzos as butter delivery vehicles.

So you think that's funny? I got it from him, but I think it's true. But there's a lot of different forms of unleavened bread other than those that many of them you do like. If you consider all the things we put out of our house, you know you've looked at labels and you thought, oh, we got to get rid of this. We got to get rid of that. Anything that makes dough rise. Right? And then what is dough? Ground grain mixed with either water or some type of oil or both, maybe a little salt and seasoning. That includes cornbread, pancakes, crackers, some breakfast cereals. Thankfully, not all. Made me think anything that's made from dough, which is ground grain with some oil or water mixed with it, that would make it unleavened bread. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but to me that includes pasta. If I'm having mac and cheese, I'm having unleavened bread. I have to throw out my cornbread, but not my corn chips. Can I count those as unleavened bread? If we could go on and on, what I'm saying is I think it's easy to eat some unleavened bread every day. But it's okay also to eat samatsu every day.

I think it would be wrong for us to focus more on that, though, than on the fact that it represents Jesus Christ. He's the bread of life. We want to take in the nature and essence of Jesus Christ. We see from the picture that Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.

That's another way to think of subsisting on Christ. Let me add another one. We've been reading the Gospel account of John, and I'll bet most of you from memory could tell me how the Gospel account of John begins. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Later in that chapter it says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. So Christ is the truth. Christ is the bread of life. Christ is the Word. And most of you know what He said in Matthew 4 and verse 4. But He was quoting from Deuteronomy. Let me read... Well, let me turn there. I'm quoting too much. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3. Because we make this connection again. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3. This is Moses reminding the next generation of Israelites what had happened to their fathers and grandfathers. So He tells them that God humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna. Which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you to know. Man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Man does not live by physical bread alone. We have to live by God's Word. We have to live by the true bread from heaven, Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the Word. He's the bread of life. He's also the truth. And the truth is God's Word. According to John 17 verse 17, thy word is truth. And that connects back to one of my favorite scriptures, also in John chapter 6. Let me just quote it. John 6, 63. Jesus said, The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. God's Word is life-sustaining spiritually. And I'm trying to, I'm quoting all these scriptures to show that we could count God's Word as the bread of life. It's a lot of symbolism, but we could say this Bible is God's Word. It represents God. It represents His way. His direction for us.

Now, I'm searching my memory, which I know is not that good, but I seem to remember when I was rather young when Herbert Armstrong was still alive, he said something like the idea that Jesus Christ was the Word of God in person and the Bible is the Word of God in print. And he's not here to correct me, but I know it was close to that. So in a sense, the Bible is Jesus Christ in print. We don't live by bread alone, but by every word of God. So I want to make the case that just as we eat unleavened bread all through these days, it could symbolize us also feeding on God's Word every day. We have to have Jesus Christ living in us, having the Spirit renewed. But I think it's appropriate as we study God's Word, as we read it, we take it in that we realize that's part of taking Christ into us, living by the bread of life. This symbolism shows up in another place that might seem unusual, but expresses so well. I'll ask you to turn with me to Ezekiel. It's in Ezekiel 2, starting in verse 8. Let's see. Ezekiel comes just before Daniel. Ezekiel 2...Ooh! Ezekiel comes just after Lamentations. I'm zeroing in on it. Ah! I feel like my friend Louis Vain Oz will say, I found it! Okay, and this is, by the way, part of a vision. So what Ezekiel is going to be described doing, I think, happened in vision, not in reality. But it says, You, Son of Man, hear what I say to you. Don't be like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you. And when I looked, there was a hand stretched out, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. Eat what I give you? Here's a scroll of a book. He spread it before me. There was writing inside and outside, and written on it were Lamentations, Mourning, and Woe. Probably some of what ended up in Ezekiel's book. Going on into chapter 3, he said to me, Son of Man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll. And go speak to the house of Israel. Oh, I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll. And he said, Son of Man, feed your belly. Fill your stomach with the scroll that I give you. So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey for sweetness.

It's sweet to have God's word. Even sweeter, I believe, to understand it. Sweet to know the mind and the will of God. But later in this chapter, we'll see, Ezekiel went away in bitterness. He was kind of like the Apostle John in Revelation 10, verse 10. I won't turn there. But in Revelation 10, 10, John also had to eat a scroll, and it was sweet as honey in his mouth, but bitter in his belly. How could it be bitter to know God's word? Well, we're never given a clear explanation, but I think, knowing the prophecies of what is to come, there are going to be plagues and hard times before the kingdom of God exists. It can be bitter to know of those plagues. It can be bitter to know that Satan holds sway over this earth. It can be bitter to realize that my sins caused the death of our Savior. But sweet to know that he was willing to do it and that he did do it. So I want to come back to the sweetness. And this points, though, still to the need of taking in God's word each and every day. Whether or not you like matzos or rykrisp, we should like having this. It should be sweet to us. Remember, I quoted from Matthew 6, 11, where Christ said, Give us this day our daily bread. This is our spiritual daily bread. So as we feed on that 11 bread during these seven days, we should think of feeding on the word of God.

It's funny, I put in my notes here. I thought, Frank, did you take this long to just get to tell people to study their Bible every day? In a sense, yes, but I think there's more to it. And yet, what could be more appropriate during this feast than to think of Christ dwelling in us, feeding on the bread from heaven, living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God?

While I'm focusing on what type of bread I eat, it will remind me that I need to feast on the word of God, to fill my mind with it. We could discuss a number of different ways to do that. There are sermons and Bible studies to talk about how to do Bible study. I just realized the irony of that. But I'll just say, I appreciate all the reference materials we have. And unlike anybody in all the previous generations, we've got more available. And there are research methods and techniques. Those are great. I still like to just sit down and read. And I don't think any of us should feel any shame in that. Whether you want to start with Genesis and work your way through, or I tend to pick a section of the Bible that's going to be my reading for this period. And the other day I started with Deuteronomy. Now, I had another motive because my class is going to start going through Deuteronomy on Monday morning, so I thought I'd better review this. But it's nice to just read through it. It's nice for us to live by God's Word. To know God's Word. It's the mind of God, of Jesus Christ. As Christians, as God's children, we should know what the Bible says. We should also know what it doesn't say. There are times when people might tell us, this isn't the Bible, or this is what God wants. We need to know what's in there. Not necessarily memorizing all the chapter and verse, although that's good to do if you can do it. But we need to have the concepts internalized. Just like when you eat a matzo, your stomach is going to break it down, dissolve it into molecules, it'll be absorbed into your blood, and it's part of you. We want to make this a part of us. So we'll recognize what's truth and what's not truth. Jesus said, your word is truth. Now, for those of you who are older, you might remember back in the late 80s and early 90s, we were told the Bible said certain things that I remember thinking, wait a minute, I'm not sure it says that. I had to go study in my Bible to find out. My point isn't to revisit that experience right now. My point is, we need to sustain ourselves spiritually by feeding on the bread of life every day. Part of that is by reading God's Word every day. The ancient Israelites, while they were wandering in the wilderness, they had to go out of the camp and gather up manna six mornings of the week. If they waited too late to do it, the sun would climb high in the sky, the manna would melt away. It's not exactly the same, but I could make the case, if we don't renew our consumption of God's Word regularly, what we have in our minds now might tend to melt away. So we want to continue renewing that. And it's not the ink on the paper that's important, it's the meaning. It's what God says to us. God's Word is spirit and it's life. Jesus also said that eating physical manna, physical bread from heaven, that only sustained physical life. But we're looking for something beyond physical life. And so we want the true bread from heaven, which Jesus said he was. And that could lead to spiritual life, to eternal life. For the rest of this festival, as we eat unleavened bread, and it can be whatever form you choose, you can have the dry matzos with no butter, you can have some pasta with the right sauce, you can bake your own unleavened bread, which is probably the best. But no matter how we do it, let's remember we must have Christ in us. We must have Christ in us through the Spirit. We must not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And I hope you have a terrific remainder of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.