How Do We Abide in the Bread of Life?

Her talents with others. Thank you, Mr. Keener. I didn't mention you'd be directing, but I wasn't reading the right thing. I didn't have it written down, so I appreciate being able to put that together and be able to have special music on the Holy Days, as we normally try to do. And I very much appreciate what Mr.

Hudson was able to cover earlier. Certainly, all of us know, as we keep the Passover from year to year, the words that Jesus spoke in John 13 through John 17, about five different chapters there, are extremely wonderful, wonderful words that he was directly giving to his disciples. He was directly stating to those who would later become the foundation of the New Testament church certain things that they had to know.

And of course, we read them every year. And yet, I know in some cases, we may not read them the rest of the time, and we shouldn't. We should, because there are some of the most important statements that you can ever find. And I think I've mentioned John chapter 15, and I want to start with that today. Because in John 15, Jesus gives the example of how important it was going to be for his servants, his friends, his disciples, and that should include all of us.

How important it was going to be for those disciples to remember what it says in verse 5, that on your own, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But of course, as it says here in verse 5, I'm the vine, you're the branches, those who abide in me and I in them shall bear much fruit, because apart from me, you can do nothing. And so from that one statement, you can say, where's the power?

Where's the ability? Where is the victory that we all are going to be able to share in? Well, it's not in us. It's in Jesus Christ. It's in the one who made the disciples what they were.

He's the one who made them. They were drawn to him, and yet he was the one who was going to make them effective. And in many ways, I think it's good for us to think about that, that he's the one who's going to make us effective. He's going to make us successful. And of course, he also gives us these days of unleavened bread. Now, I know we often spend a good amount of time putting leaven out of our homes, which we are asked to do by God.

We're commanded to do that, and we read part of that earlier. And yet, what we read in, let's go to this in Exodus 12. Exodus 12 is where you see this initiated, and God giving to Israel instruction about the very first Passover, and then following that, what he was going to give them as holy days. And he says here in Exodus 12 verse 15, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

So that's really what I'm looking forward to. For the next seven days, I'm excited. I've got some unleavened chocolate brownies, and I've got some other goodies of stuff that I like that I know are unleavened. And yet, I always am excited to spend seven days eating some of that each day, and thinking about what it means. Thinking about what it means to have Jesus Christ living in me. Because that's what he says.

He tells us that he's available to us. You know, I certainly want to be open to that. I want to be requesting that. But as it says here, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall remove leaven from your homes. Whoever eats leavened bread for the first day until the seventh shall become offered. So he tells us directly what we are to do. He doesn't explain why, not here in Exodus. He doesn't explain why, except he just says, do it.

But he does explain why when we look into the New Testament. And even as we look back into other parts of the Old Testament, as I'm going to do today, down in verse 20, he says, you shall eat nothing leavened, and all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread. And so I hope that all of us can look forward in a very positive and very excited and a very uplifting way to eating unleavened bread throughout this festival. This being the first day of seven days.

The last day will be next Friday. So we have seven days to be able to eat unleavened bread. Now, I'd like for us, in connection with what Jesus said here in John about him being the blind and us being the branches, he says that we need to abide in Jesus Christ. We need to abide or we need to imbibe or we need to drink in of what Jesus Christ has to offer, because he has far more capacity, far more ability, far more compassion, far more power than we might ever imagine.

Here in John chapter 6, this is also a section that we read during the Passover, at least parts of John chapter 6. But in John chapter 6, Jesus, after having fed huge crowds with fish and bread, he performed a miracle earlier in this chapter that they just couldn't believe, the disciples had a hard time believing it, they had a hard time collecting everything. Afterwards, because they were dealing with someone with extraordinary power, they were dealing with the Son of God, whether they fully understood that. Peter ultimately was able to at least express that.

We know who you are, but they didn't even throughout their lives and throughout the three years that we know Christ was training his disciples that they would get some things and they wouldn't get others. But rather than all of us, we want to get it. We want to get what it is that Jesus is pointing out to us. In verse 51, actually in verse 48, he says, I'm the bread of life.

I'm the bread of life.

And he goes on in verse 51, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread is going to live forever. And the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.

And so he was going to explain this in greater detail, and I'm not going to go through all of that because it's directly Passover related in verse 52 and 3 and 4. But I do want to focus on verse 56 because he said, those who eat my flesh and who drink my blood, those who eat, and this is not only referring to the Passover service that we observe and that we appreciate, that we look forward to, that we do as he directs us to, as a commemoration of proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. He says in verse 56, those who eat my flesh, who drink my blood, abide in me. They abide in me, and I abide in them. He says, I'm the vine. You abide in me, and you're going to be a branch that's attached to the vine. And here he points out that, well, if you eat my flesh, you drink my blood, then you're going to abide in me. I think it's important that we think about that during the days of Unleavened Bread because we're eating unleavened bread that symbolizes the sinless life of Jesus Christ, that symbolizes the power available to us through a relationship with God the Father, our loving Father, and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, I'd like for us to think about, you know, how is it that we can abide in Jesus Christ? See, we went through, or at least I gave a sermon a few weeks ago. I don't remember if it was the one where I was about to croak or not, but anyway, I was talking about, at least in one sermon, about abiding in the words of Jesus. That's an important aspect of what He tells us to do. He also tells us to abide in His love. Now, that's something I'm going to talk about later. Not today. But He tells us to abide in Him, abide in Jesus Christ. And I think we can put, you know, this together because He does. You know, He says, I'm the living bread, and I want you to abide in Me. And so, during the days of the Eleven Bread, I think it could clearly be examined to think about how is it that we are to abide in the bread of life? How is it that we abide in the bread of life? And I'd like to go through a number of verses today, and actually, I'm only going to refer to some of them. But I'd like for you to think about, how is it that I'm abiding in the bread of life? That's something that I want to think about every day when I eat my Eleven Bread. How I'm abiding in the bread of life. How is it that I'm asking and that I'm desiring Jesus Christ to live in me? And, of course, I'm eating Unleavened Bread that symbolizes the bread of life. If we look throughout the Old Testament, and actually, I'm going to go through a number of Psalms today, entirely, the remainder of what I'm going to offer to you today, is a bunch of Psalms. But a bunch of Psalms that I think could be very, very helpful to us, especially if we study these throughout this week. We study them because they reveal what Jesus Christ is like. They reveal how it is that He reveals Himself, but how He also reveals the Father, and how He wants us to be connected to them. Now, Mr. Hudson started going through John 17, at least some of the verses. He didn't go through the entirety of that because there's way too much information there to try to cover in one sermon anyway. And yet, when we look at the Old Testament, we see the Lord of the Old Testament, the one who would later become Jesus Christ. We see Him described in many ways. There are actually many words that are used to describe Jesus Christ. Now, some of these are used by David. Many of them are used by David in the Psalms, but there are other places. You know, you find other descriptions. Now, what descriptions would you immediately think of? What descriptions would you think of that describe Jesus Christ?

Now, there's a lot of different words, and again, I'm not going to go through all of those words. I'm actually going to focus on two of them today. Two descriptions that I think should uplift us, that should empower us, should benefit us as we live our Christian lives because, you know, our lives are not always easy. You know, we face struggles. We face trials, whether some of those might be financial, whether some of them might be employment, some of them might be health, others might be relationships that we would like to see improved just with other people. And yet, we endure, you know, many different things. And clearly, you know, thankfully, as Janice reported to us, Harry's gone through a recent trial with a heart, or not a heart surgery, but a brain surgery. And Holly's father has had a heart surgery. You know, that strains on our emotions, that it strains on our heart, it strains on our, you know, ability to function as well as we would like. Where do we turn? What do we think about in order to properly deal with the type of stresses, and the frustrations, and the anxieties that we struggle with as human beings?

You know, as Jesus said, you can't do anything without me. And so, we want to look to Him. We want to look to the source. The two areas that I want to focus on here this afternoon is, first of all, that we see Jesus Christ described as the rock. He's described as a rock. He's described in numerous ways, and I'm only focusing on a couple of them today. But the first of those is that He's described as a rock. Now, you know, why is it that He's described as a rock?

Well, I guess probably geologically someone could analyze that far better than I could. Some of you probably could analyze that far better than I could. But I only simply, you know, want to point out that, you know, He's described as a rock because He is the one who provides the strength. He's the one who provides the stability that we need as we endure the ups and downs during our lives. He's the one who is always there. He is a constant, and He is, you know, the one who provides comfort and assurance whenever we are in any kind of stress. And, of course, you know, it's good to be reminded that, you know, He's talked of as a rock in the Old Testament. He's talked of in the New Testament as the spiritual rock that we are all to drink from. But I want to go again to some Psalms. And again, if you even, I am saying that you could, if you would like, if you would focus on each of these Psalms, one perhaps a day, I think you may come to more deeply appreciate what Jesus does for us. How stabilizing He is for us, because He provides us stability. I want to start in Psalm 71. You know, this is clearly a Psalm that, it's a Psalm that, well, I'm not going to elaborate on each one of these, because we're not going to get done anytime soon, if I do. But it's a Psalm that actually has a great deal importance, even to those of us who are older and to those of you who are younger. Even those of you who are the youngest here in our congregation, Parker and Bryce and Lauren and Alexis and Amanda, some of the others, I'm not, I don't know fully all the names to remember everyone, but see, even our young people, even our young people can benefit from what Psalm 71 says, because it's a Psalm that actually expresses hope in God, appreciation for the power and strength that He provides from our youth all the way up to our old age. This is what it talks about. It says in verse 1, In you, O Lord, I take refuge, let me never be put to shame, and your righteousness deliver me and rescue me, incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me, in verse 3, be to me a rock of refuge. Be to me a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Now, I would imagine that David had at times thought about this whenever he was hiding in a cave, whenever he was inside a rock cave, because there was a lot of hilly, rocky caves around where he would have been hiding from Saul. So, I think that's one reason why he would use that as an illustration, but he very clearly points out, and these are actually even very good to use as prayers. If we find that we're struggling with prayer, then we can just start reading a psalm to God. We can share that psalm with God. It's a psalm. I mean, most of these are hymns in our hymnal, because we have many of these who have been put to music. But see, he talks about God being the rock of our refuge, and of course, the Lord here he mentions in verse 1. This could easily refer to the one who would later become Jesus Christ. He says in verse 5, For you, O Lord, are my hope, O trust, O Lord, you are my trust from my youth.

You are my trust from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth.

It was you who took me from my mother's womb, and my praises continually of you. See, here he mentions people even very, very young, even very small, learning to trust God, learning to appreciate God, learning to realize that He is the source of power and strength, and that He's the one who can provide stability. There are many people in this world who would like to have some stability. In many ways, they're seeking for stability. They're seeking for a stable power. And yet, in many ways, that may evade them. But this is very clear about where this comes from. He says in verse 9, Do not cast me off in the time of old age. Do not forsake me when my strength is spent. You know, as we get older, that's the way we feel. At least I feel more tired today than I did 30 years ago. You know, we can still be strengthened. We can still be lifted up. We want to be feeding and abiding in the bread of life. We want to be reminded that He's available and that He's there. Let's drop down to verse 20. There's more here. Actually, we can drop down to verse 17. Oh God, for my youth, You have taught me I shall still proclaim Your wondrous deeds, even to old age, and gray hair, or for me, no hair. Oh God, do not forsake me until I proclaim Your might, and to all the generations to come. He says down in verse 20, You are the one who has made me seem trouble and calamity, and yet You will revive me again. You know, that verse right there in verse 20, You have made or allowed me to see trouble and calamity. You know, does God want us to go through that? Well, I don't know that He necessarily forces us to go through it. We probably create enough of it ourselves. But He allows us to go through difficulties and struggles because He's concerned about us. He wants us to grow. Again, as Mr. Hudson mentioned, He wants us to grow in His divine nature. The only way I'm going to have that divine nature is through the power of God. The only way I'm going to have that is through abiding in the vine, abiding in the bread of life and appreciating that bread of life. So in verse 21, He says, or you have made me in verse 20 to see this trouble and calamity, but You will revive me from the depths of the earth. You will bring me up. You will increase my honor and You will comfort me. Once again, where is comfort? Who is comfort? Who provides stability? Let's jump over to chapter 28. This is another chapter that refers to Jesus Christ as a rock. The bread of life is the one who provides us the stability that is rock solid. Here in chapter 28, it says in verse 1, Do you, O Lord, I call my rock? Do you I call, O God, my rock? Do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the pit. You know, if God is silent toward us, then we feel like we might as well die. That's the way we feel sometimes. And that's what David was saying. He says, if I don't have you, if I don't have your help, if I don't have your strength and your stability, well, then I'm like those who go down to the pit. And verse 2, Hear the voice of my supplication as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

Now, this is a relationship with God that David describes, and I believe David wrote many of these Psalms. I think probably all of these that I'm reading to you today. And yet, they're important for us to be keeping in mind and keeping these words of God in our mind because he says, Hear my voice as I cry to you and as I lift my hands up to you. Down in verse 6, he says, Bless be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleading. And so God does hear. He wants to hear. He wants to hear from his children. He wants to hear what they have to say. He wants to hear the requests. He wants to hear the praise. He wants to hear the worship. That's what we can offer. That's what we can give. We can give the sacrifice of our lips, which is thanksgiving and worship of the great God. He says in verse 7, The Lord is my strength and my shield and in him my heart trusts. See, that's a relationship that Jesus wants us to have. He encourages us to have during the days of Unleavened Bread. He encourages us to understand that he's the source of power. He's the source of strength. He goes on here in verse 7, And my heart is trusting in the Lord, so I am helped. I am helped, and my heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to him. Verse 8, The Lord is the strength of his people, and he's the saving refuge of his anointed. O Savior people, and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them forever. See, that's a comforting vision, being carried as a lamb in the arms of the Good Shepherd. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing to think of, to realize. And that, of course, is the way he describes our relationship with him. He's very concerned about us. He's already given his life for us, but he's alive today, and he works with us as we draw close to him, and as we feed and abide in the bread of life. Let's go over to chapter 62. Chapter 62 is another one that is similar in what it expresses. Psalm chapter 62, you know, this Psalm states, you know, that there's great stability. The Rock, who is our bread of life, he provides great stability. He says here in verse 1, the Lord or the God, for God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. Okay, he's making an exclamation. He's proclaiming that, you know, I know I need help. I know at times I'm in trouble. I know I need to be able to overcome. I know I need to change. But I know that he's available. And as it says, my soul waits for God. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. Because of that, I shall never be shaken. You know, that's an amazing thing to think about. You know, that we can have the stability, we can have the strength and the power that comes from God and not be shaken.

You know, it's very easy to be shaken, very easy to be distressed whenever things come upon us, and whenever, you know, time kind of gets upon us, you know, we don't seem to have enough time to do everything we need to do at times. And yet, you know, he says, because I'm looking to the rock of my salvation, I shall never be shaken. He says the same thing in verse 5 and verse 6 and verse 7.

He says, oh God, on God rest my deliverance and my honor. You are my mighty rock. My refuge is in God. You know, it's amazing, you know, the type of the source of stability and strength that Jesus Christ is. And yet, we want, you know, we want to drink in of that information. We want to drink in of that. And as we eat unleavened bread throughout this week, we want to really focus on the type of strength and the type of power that He provides us that comes through Him alone. The second area that I want to focus on, and again, this is again one of several that we could talk about, but the second area that I want us to think about is simply not only is the Lord of the Old Testament, the one who became Jesus Christ, He's listed as our rock, but He's also listed as our refuge.

He's listed as our refuge, and I think the phrase of the terminology involving refuge is more like a security. You know, it's very easy at times to be afraid. It's easy to be insecure. It's easy to feel rattled. And yet, what He says is that I'm the rock, and I am your refuge. Now, part of that was mentioned in what we stated earlier. I want to start in chapter 91. You know, chapter 91, I recall again growing up on a farm in Oklahoma, and sometimes I'd be out wandering around over the property there and maybe over at the pond. And I recall several times, you know, starting to rain. Of course, I wasn't very good at predicting whether back then or now, either. But I enjoyed going over to the pond, and of course, if it started raining, I remember one time it started hailing. You know, it wasn't terribly large, but you know, big enough if you were just standing in it that you would have wanted to get out of the way. And so you had to take refuge, and I was thankfully able to get into a little cave or a little cove that had a kind of a rock cave there. That was a refuge. I didn't get beat up with the hail. You know, that was a benefit. That was a wonderful thing. It's interesting to see here, the Psalms that talk about God as our refuge and our security. You know, this first one here in Psalm 91, you who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, who say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

It's interesting that this section here starts off, you know, telling us that that's where we need to be. We need to be imbibing. We need to be abiding in the bread of life and the one who is our sound and solid security. Yet here you find actually four different terms used for God.

You know, it's in the first two verses here. You find the Most High, of course, being the Most High above all other gods. You find the Almighty, the one who's all sufficient, the one who provides everything that we need. You find the Lord, the one who is eternally existing. Of course, he says in verse 2, my God, the one that I have a personal relationship with, the one that I enjoy praying to, the one that I enjoy reading about, the one that I enjoy studying about, the one that I am cultivating a close relationship with.

Down in verse 9 it says, because you've made the Lord your refuge, the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge shall come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all of your ways. See, what type of refuge is God able to provide? Well, he undoubtedly gives us angelic protection whether we know it or not. Sometimes we seem to know that or we seem to identify it, and yet it isn't always the case. It says in verse 14, those who love me, I'm going to deliver. They can have a true sense of security and assurance. Those who love me, I will deliver. I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer. I will answer. I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue them and honor them. Is God neglectful? Is Jesus Christ neglectful in His nurturing or His care of those that God has drawn to Him to be a part of His divine family in whom He is serving and guiding and directing to become a part of the divine family of God? Certainly, this Psalm would indicate that that's not the case. Let's go over to chapter 94. Just a page over in my Bible. Here in chapter 94, you actually have David writing about how the wicked were oppressing him and how he had a lot of difficulties with others. He had a lot of difficulties. Of course, he had problems with Saul. He was trying to soothe Saul, and Saul was trying to throw spears at him. You find that even when he was king, there were others who tried to tear him down. And you find that later his family tries falling apart and is also trying to tear him apart. And even as he's nearing the end of his life, there's huge disputes over who's going to be in charge after David. He struggled a lot through many things. And yet he says in verse 12, happy are those whom you discipline, Lord, whom you teach out of your law. In verse 14, he says, the Lord will not forsake his people. He will not abandon his heritage. See, reading through these types of psalms can provide stability. They can provide encouragement. They can provide an uplifting manner. He goes on in verse 16, who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? Well, he answers that in verse 17, if the Lord had not been my help, then my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. And even when I thought my foot is slipping, your steadfast love, O Lord, help me up. And when the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

You know, is that something we rely on, brethren? Is that something we believe? Is that something that we depend on as we bring any difficulties that we have to God, as we feed on the bread of life, as we abide in that bread of life? The last chapter I want to focus on here is chapter 31. Chapter 31 is also a chapter that talks about stability. It talks about it being the refuge that we need in this world. And here in chapter 31, you know, you find, you know, that what is described here is help and encouragement when there's great difficulty. When there's great distress. You know, that's what it tells us. And of course, as we read that, it's amazing the type of appeal that David is making to God. He says, In you, O Lord, I seek refuge. I want to be able to seek that refuge, and I want to encourage you to do that. Do not let me ever be put to shame, and your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear to me and rescue me speedily. You know, here's one of the statements where, you know, sometimes we'd like to be helped quickly, especially when we hurt, especially when we're ailing. But he says, Incline your ear to me, rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. He goes on, he describes actually in verse 9 and 10, quite a bit of distress that he was in. But down in verse 14, even though I'm in distress, verse 14, I trust in you, O Lord. I say, You are my God. And I know in verse 15 that my times are in Your hand. See, my times are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and my persecutors. See, this is a very reassuring approach, very reassuring, comforting benefit of a closeness to Jesus Christ, a closeness to our Lord. He says in verse 16, Let your face shine upon your servant and save me in your sent steadfast love. The whole terminology there of, Let your face shine upon your servant is a statement that's made numerous times in the Old Testament, talking about, you know, God not turning away from us, but actually, you know, turning toward us. Let your face shine upon your servant, save me in your steadfast love. And then he points out, he points out down in verse 20, In the shelter of your presence, you hide them from human plots. Here he's talking about others who would plot against him, but he says, I have to hide. I have to seek the refuge in the shelter of your presence.

And even down here in verse 22, this is very human. This is very much like we are, because we're pretty limited. Maybe I could start up in verse...

Well, in verse 22, I have said in my alarm, that I'm driven far from your sight. See, at times we might think that, you know, God's not helping us. He's not watching over us. He's not protecting us. He's not nurturing us like we'd like.

He says, I've said in my alarm, I'm driven from your sight, but... Verse 22, you still hear my supplication when I cry out to you for help. That could be a wonderful verse to memorize. In verse 22, I had in my alarm thought that I was driven from your sight, but you heard whatever feeble prayer I might have been offering at the time. When I cried out to you for help, you were there. Love the Lord, O you His saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly and abundantly repays the one who acts heartily. But be strong and let your heart take courage, all of you who wait for the Lord. See, you know, these are just some of the illustrations that we could go through in talking about how it is that Jesus Christ is the bread of life and is the one that we want to trust in, the one that we want to nurture a close relationship with, and that we want to thrive under not only His protection, His refuge, but under His strength and under His power. And so, I've offered you six Psalms that you could study more throughout this week if you'd like. If you're going to do that seven days and you'd have to pick one yourself, I would actually offer to you Psalm 46. I'm not going to even go over it at all today, but if you read through Psalm 46, you'll see it's quite prophetic. It's prophetic about what we're even yet to go through in this age. It's prophetic about how the church and how people who are close to God are going to need to be protected in the days ahead of us.

And that protection is a spiritual protection. That protection comes from Jesus Christ, our Lord. That protection comes from our relationship with God. And so, I hope that you will take the time not only to eat unleavened bread and to think about how important it is that we feed on the bread of life, but that we think about how it is He is our strength, He is our stability, He is the one who provides for us in every means, in every way. And then, of course, He's going to cause us to be successful. He's going to cause us to have a victory. Again, as Mr. Hudson read, he talked about how that if we've been called and we've been justified, and if we've been justified, we're going to be glorified. We're going to be the recipient of the blessings of God.

We want to be on the right path. We want to be following the one who can provide everything we need. And, of course, that is Jesus Christ. So, stay throughout this week, during these days of Unleavened Bread, focused on abiding in the bread of life, because He is our rock, and He is our refuge.