“The Significance of Bread”

Speak to brethren like you. Now, I didn't know. Sometimes I like to use props. I didn't know if this was a dangerous one, but I saw we had various other versions out there. But I didn't see a lot of this in the other room. But that's okay, but it is a type of bread, you know. And, of course, one of the things I like to say, the days of unleavened bread is not at all the days of no bread. Of course, we have bread. And you might wonder, across my mind, you know, God could have used something else. He could have made it the days of unsweetened cereal, the days of no cream in your coffee. But He chose bread as a powerful symbol for us these days. I'm going to try to make sure I don't make a ton of crumbs up here. And I think one of the reasons is because bread is and has been so commonplace in the world. In its various forms, and we know now, this time of year, we're aware of how many forms there are, bread is the most widely consumed food in the world. We eat bread as human beings. And I did some research, and some sources say that mankind invented bread somewhere between 15 and 30,000 years ago. I leaned more towards about 6,000 years. But I'm willing to say we've been eating bread since the start.

Bread has long been called the staff of life. It's a centerpiece, a staple of almost everyone's diet.

And through history, you know, if you go back far enough, not only would people eat bread, but if you had a stale heel or something that could serve as a plate, you know, or a bowl that you could then eat afterwards, maybe a stiff piece of crust as an eating utensil. One of the reasons it's called the staff of life is because, you know, for much of history, people didn't eat nearly as much meat as we're accustomed to in the United States. So special occasions would be when meat was consumed. Of course, sometimes when they did go to Jerusalem, you know, and they brought their firstborn of their flocks and herds, and they made an offering to God. And we've learned since then, eating too much meat isn't necessarily good for your health. There needs to be a good balance, but not necessarily so for bread. And when I say bread being very good for us, I don't mean the bleached white product in plastic bags on the grocery store shelf. Now, not that that's bad, and I have to give a disclaimer that I love white bread toast, and I still think that's the best way for grilled cheese sandwiches. Not the best, healthiest, but the tastiest. I like the white bread, the processed cheese that, you know, might not even be cheese at all.

But as I said, prior to about a century and a half ago, bread was almost always made from whole grains. You know, it would be ground into a flour that included the kernel and the husk of the grain, you know, and it had lots of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and whatever other modern buzzwords we think of. That was good for us. This type of flour had almost complete proteins.

Nowadays, that's not so much so of the bread that we might purchase. So, researching this, I checked a few sources, one of which being WebMD. Now, I'll say, if you think you're sick, don't go to WebMD. You'll just scare yourself to death. But if you're looking for research on other subjects, I looked at it, and it said that eating whole grain is almost like a type of health insurance. That eating whole grain is associated with a lower average weight, better heart health, a less incidence of cancer, lower risk for type 2 diabetes, lower asthma rates in children, even protection against gallstones, which I have no idea why. But I say, no wonder it's been called the staff of life. Would we call it the bread of life? And I'm guessing we probably would not, because we think of that phrase meaning something rather different. And you might have guessed I didn't come here today to talk about nutrition, but I want to talk about bread and see that God used it as a symbol on these days for special reasons. It can help us understand what God is doing, and also when God wants to make sure to provide for his people, one of the things he would provide is bread. I'm going to say, I think part of the reason that God did this is, we know that whatever we eat, it comes into our bodies, our digestive system breaks it down, we absorb it, and it literally becomes a part of us. You know, you've heard that phrase, I'm sure you are what you eat. And people eat every day. Things that we do eat every day, like bread, can then serve as a pretty important symbol when God wants to teach us a lesson. So I want to talk today about God providing bread and the meaning and importance of this symbol. So, you know, Scripture shows when God wants to provide for the physical needs of his people, he provides bread. And I want to turn to a couple of scriptures, but one that you might not have thought of is in Psalm 37. Psalm 37, beginning in verse 23. And I'll admit, this is one that sticks in my head because I was a teenager growing up in the 1970s when we had certain financial crises. That's, I think, the last big recession we had. And so it sort of built into me to be cautious about money and make sure we had enough. And I always found this passage to be reassuring. So starting in verse 23 of Psalm 37, it says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though we fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I've been young, and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging for bread.

That begging for bread here. And I think that represents not just, you know, a slice of whatever type of bread we're eating, but God providing physical sustenance, food in general.

And while we're in Psalms, I'll turn to one more before I get to my main example here. Psalm 132, beginning in verse 15.

Psalm 132. I didn't print a handout like Mr. Prideman, so I'll try to make sure I say that Scripture is more than once. Of course, the fact that this isn't my normal Bible, it takes me more time to get there. Verse 13 first, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. And then in verse 15, God said, I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread. How does God satisfy the poor with bread? Well, in many cases, probably, he blesses us through our work. He makes it possible for us to earn a living. He gives us the power to get wealth. But there are times God can just intervene more directly. I'm not going to turn to it, but in 1 Kings 17, there's part of the story of Elijah the prophet. And we know before he confronted the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, God had him declare a drought. And a famine covered the land. But God provided for his prophet Elijah. He said, I want you to go down to this brook, and he would drink water from the brook, and twice a day ravens would fly in. It says, bringing bread and meat. In the morning, meat and bread. And in the evening, here they come. So when God wants to provide, he's going to send bread. I'd love to have seen that, a bird here. You can make a nice sandwich out of that. I'm not sure if he brought some mustard with it.

But I want to turn to the story, you know, more directly when we think of God giving bread, Frank, how could you not be mentioning this one? And that's related to the Exodus story. We're studying that this time of year because we know that culminated with the Passover when God's people, Israel, were enslaved in Egypt. When God finally was ready, his timing was right. He called Moses to go and bring them out. And Pharaoh wasn't so keen on letting them go, so God was able to demonstrate his great power.

And he was able to show that the so-called gods that the Egyptians worshipped were not gods at all. And they were associated with things like the River Nile and with the cattle and most of all with the sun. And then Pharaoh himself was a god, and God took his firstborn. And so we know when Israel left Egypt, of course, they kept the Passover, the very first Passover, which we commemorate. And we see that God spared the Israelites.

He spared those who put the blood on their lintel and on their doorpost, but not the Egyptians. And the next morning, the Israelites were able to go out. God said, don't go out before morning. And then they used the word plunder, and then you can, I'm not sure if the word plunder is best, but you know, visit your neighbors and get gold and silver. And we might say decades or hundreds of years of back wages. And then they went out in an organized manner.

And they were leaving slavery in Egypt, which symbolizes us leaving the slavery of sin. And so that Passover land that they sacrificed a symbol of Jesus Christ. And I'll often say every Passover lamb, every year, and every household down through the ages was looking forward to our true Passover, Jesus Christ. And we commemorated that a couple of nights ago. And then commemorated our freedom from sin as the Israelites were freed from slavery last night. You know, when they went out, as the old King James says, with a high hand, they went out with boldness by night.

And as they traveled, they were eating unleavened bread. That's when God first gave them that symbol. You know, don't let leavening be in there. And for seven days, they did that. And of course, tradition says that it was on the seventh day of unleavened bread that they passed through the Red Sea. And I'm just rehearsing the story to set us up because I want to look at also what came after.

Because, of course, God destroyed Egypt's military might, ensuring that the Israelites would stay out of slavery. But the story continues. And God continued to use bread as a lesson. So I should have turned there already, but Exodus chapter 16 is where I want to turn. And we might remember chapter 14 is where they go through the Red Sea.

Chapter 15 is the song of celebration that Moses wrote. But as I said, their lives continued after that. Yeah, they weren't even to Mount Sinai yet. So in chapter 16 of Exodus, I want to pick up with verse 2.

This is, then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. And the children of Israel said to them, all that we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. Which seems kind of funny when they were so scared of that army, but wish we died there because there we sat by pots of meat. And when we ate bread to the full, you brought us into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.

It seems they hadn't really built up a great amount of trust and faith in God yet. Despite the miracles they'd seen, you know, face it, humans don't tolerate hunger very well. And we all are reminded of that when we fast.

We get a little irritable and we don't think all that clearly. So God didn't provide more food for them right away, though. They went all through seven days of unleavened bread eating the food that they already had.

And I think God wanted to show them how much they had to rely on Him. Rely on Him every day. Let's look in verse 4, because God's not going to leave them hungry.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. The people will go out and gather a certain quota every day. That I may test them, whether they'll walk in my law or not. And it'll be on the sixth day they'll prepare what they bring in and it'll be twice as much as they gather daily. Moses and Aaron said to the children of Israel, at evening you'll know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you'll see the glory of the Lord. For here's your complaints against the Lord. What are we that you complain against us? Now, Moses said, This will be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and the morning bread to the full. For the Lord hears your complaints which you make against him. Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord. Now, I'm not going to read the part about quail coming in the evening. I still have questions of how what we see here in Exodus matches in Numbers, I believe, chapter 11, when they ate so much quail that it ended up killing several of them. But I want to start in verse 13. It says, So it was that quails come up at evening, covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay all around the camp, and when the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance, fine as frost on the ground. And they said to one another, What is it? They didn't know what it was, and Moses said to them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. So he says, This is the thing that the Lord commanded. Let everyone gather it according to each one's need, one omer for every each person to the number of persons. Let everyone take for those who are in his tent.

So God provided, I find it interesting, God didn't deliver it to their door. He still had it involved some work. Every morning they would have to get up. And let's say every morning for the next 40 years, sometimes I'm astounded because we don't read about manna happening every day all through this time, but God miraculously provided for his people. They had to go out and gather it, but it would be there. And he, well, if we read further, which I won't read it right now, because I'm sure we pretty well know the story, he told him, take as much as you need, but don't keep it overnight. Because if you kept it overnight, which some did in the morning, it's gonna stink. It's gonna have worms in it. You can't eat it. And some people had to learn that the hard way. There, and also, one night a week, he'll work a miracle where you can keep it. So on the sixth day, you can get twice as much, and on Sabbath morning, there won't be any worms, and it won't stink. So you can rest on the Sabbath and not go gather. One of the important lessons in this is God providing on a daily basis. You didn't go out and get a month's supply, not a week's supply, but daily. And they had to rely on God continuously all through the time they were wandering. Now, apparently, the stuff was pretty good, too. If you turn ahead to verse 31 in chapter 16, it says, the house of Israel called its name Manah, which they say in the Hebrew means, what is it? And it was like white coriander seed, the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And that sounds pretty good the way he's describing it. Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. So Moses said to Aaron, take a pot, put an omer of manna in it. Lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up. And we know eventually this would be put in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle. In verse 35, the children of Israel ate manna 40 years until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came into the border of the land of Canaan. And I say, apparently God worked a miracle for that pot of manna as well. No worms, no stinking. Of course, they were never allowed to eat it, but it was there for future generations to learn the lesson of God providing manna. Now, we're a future generation. We don't have that particular pot. It's been lost. We don't know what happened to it. But we have the story preserved in God's Word to help us learn some lessons. One lesson is God does provide. You know, that's a lesson of physical sustenance.

You know, God provides for us in a way that only He can. He gives life. He gives the bread of life.

And another lesson is we have to rely on God continually, not just one time. You know, we have to turn to Him again and again and build our reliance on Him on a daily basis.

Of course, we're human. Sometimes when God is providing for us daily, we can start taking it for granted. If you will, turn with me to Numbers 11. I almost hate to include this, but I think it's a lesson for us. I referenced this earlier. Numbers 11 will begin in verse 4. Because I said, we tend to take things for granted. We want variety, and so the ancient Israelites.

Here in Numbers 11, verse 4, The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel wept and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, onions, garlic. Now our whole being is dried up, and there's nothing at all except this manna. Now remember, we just read it was like white coriander seed and wafers with honey. Does anybody know what coriander seed tastes like? I know I don't. I'm guessing it was something good, but now they're tired of it. Nothing but this manna. But Moses, I think, inserted what it says in verse 8. The people went about, gathered it on millstones, beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it. It tasted like pastry prepared with oil. Now, so manna was pretty versatile. It seemed you gather it up, and then you grind it into a flower.

Funny, I was having a discussion with someone in the home. It might have been Mr. Dean. We were trying to figure out how they kept it leavened, you know, because if you make sourdough, you have to have a starter, right? Can you keep starter of something that stinks and breeds worms overnight? And during the week, the annual days of unleavened bread, you have to get rid of whatever you have, and how do you start it up again? And these are questions I can't answer. Maybe I should say, don't take notes, and Frank, don't even ask these questions, which it's too late. You know, but like I said, God provides what we need, and he does it far better than we sometimes understand. Now, I don't think it's wrong to want to eat meat. God wouldn't have provided quail for them and other things, but we don't want to have a rebellious, ungrateful attitude. And it seems that people doubted God. They weren't sure what he could do. If you will, turn back with me to Psalms to see a summary of this. It's in Psalm 78. Psalm 78 will begin in verse 22. And this is one of those stories that has a great overview summary of some of the history that Israel experienced. So we're in Psalm 78. I'm going to begin in verse 17, where it says, They sinned even more against him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. They tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy. So it wasn't that they wanted meat. It's that they were testing God. They spoke against God, said, Jesus, and God. And they were going to be able to do that. And they were going to be able to do that. And they were going to be able to do that. And they were going to be able to do that. They spoke against God, said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Well, behold, he struck the rock, so waters gushed out and his dreams overflowed. Can he give us bread also? Can he provide meat for his people? Therefore, the Lord heard this and was furious. So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger came up against Israel, because they did not believe in God. They did not trust in his salvation. Yet he had commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven. He had rained down manna on them to eat, had given them the bread of heaven. Men ate angels' food. He sent them food to the full.

So God can provide, and he does, and he sent them what's called bread from heaven.

I want to turn now to another example in the New Testament that relates to this. I wanted to make sure we had the story of manna fully set before we look at Christ's words and his teaching in a particular example. So I want you to turn with me to John chapter 6.

This will sound very familiar, because we read a fair bit of it during the Passover ceremony, and we've referred to it since then. But this is thousands of years later, and we see that God was still providing bread miraculously for people that needed it. He was still intervening when there was a need. So we'll pick up the story. John 6, beginning in verse 5, because Christ had traveled. He was over to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, and a crowd of people followed him. And of course, it's this time of year. Maybe we'll read in verse 4, where it says, Passover, a feast of the Jews was near. And it says, a feast of the Jews, because John was riding decades after the other apostles with a more wide-ranging audience. But it says, then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming towards him. He said to Philip, where are we going to get bread to all these people made to eat? You know, hey, here's a big crowd. How are we going to feed them? Philip said, well, 200 denari worth of bread isn't sufficient for them, that one of them might have a little. It reminds me, a denari was a working man's wage for a day. 200 days is most of a year. So, almost a year's salary wouldn't be enough to feed this crowd. Philip, you know, and one of his disciples, Andrew, Peter's brother, well, there's a lad. Lad here is five barley loaves and two small fish.

What's that going to be among so many? We know Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do.

In verse 10, he says, make the people sit down, and there was much grass in the place. You know, it was spring, Passover season, and so the men sat down and number about 5,000. Jesus took the loaves when he'd given thanks. He distributed them to the disciples, the disciples to those sitting down, likewise the fish, as much as they wanted. So, verse 12 says, when they were filled, and that's telling us everybody had as much to eat as they could handle, Jesus said, gather up the fragments that remain so nothing is lost. And they gathered them up, filled 12 baskets of the fragments, 12 baskets with the fragments of the five loaves. I just love that phrase. So, they ended up with way more than they started. God miraculously was feeding his people. And then those men, when they'd seen the signs that Jesus did, said, this truly is the prophet who is to come into the world. Therefore, when Jesus perceived they were about to come and try to take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone. Now, I'm not going to read... I'm going to skip over the parts of what happens between this part and when Christ will again speak to the crowd. But it's worth knowing he went up in the mountain and he gave his disciples instructions to go on alone. And, you know, it's interesting because the disciples got in the boat and they rode and it was during the night. And the other gospel accounts that showed Jesus was up on the mountain and he could see them. And it makes sense from a mountaintop, you could see down and they were having some trouble because the wind was contrary and so he walks on water out there. One account says he's about to pass by him but they saw him and we... you know the whole incident, Peter coming out to him and... Sorry, I said I wasn't going to talk about it. Now I'm talking about it. But we have a lesson in faith for Peter and then they're at the shore.

And so they're going to make their way back towards Capernaum, which is their home base, but the people they left behind were wondering what happened to Jesus. You know, we saw the disciples leave and now he's not here. So eventually they say, well, we'll follow them, go the direction where they were, and finally they find Jesus there. I don't think... I don't know if he ever tells him, well, I just walked across the water. You should try it.

But anyways, let's go in verse 26. I'm going to pick up because he's going to reprimand them at first because the reason they're looking for him doesn't seem to be for the spiritual teaching. Their motivations might not be the best, which he says in verse 26.

Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me, you're looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

For at least some of these people, it's not even the miracle that impressed them. They wanted another free lunch. Okay, free food. Let's go. In verse 27 he tells them what the priority should be. Of course, what our priority must be. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. Physical food is good. And we've spent a bit of time looking in the Scripture to show that God will provide physical food. He doesn't want us to go hungry, but it will perish.

I wonder, by this time, even the leftovers from the day before, in those 12 baskets, was that starting to get a little bit stale? And I don't know. But Jesus told them this, and now the people will play along a little bit. In verse 28 they said to him, well, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus said this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. He's speaking of Himself. Therefore they said to Him, well, what sign will you perform that we may see it and believe you? Work a miracle so we can believe it. What work will you do? And then they give a little hint, maybe a hint that their stomachs are doing some of the talking. Our Father is a manna in the desert, as it's written. He gave them bread to eat, bread from heaven to eat.

So, Jesus, you want us to believe you? Work a miracle. How about some more food? You know, bread from heaven. Now, we'll see Jesus is going to use the manna as a type of what He'll call the true bread from heaven. And I understand, I don't think I'm revealing anything new to you. We've got an experienced group who knows this, but it's good to review today. Picking up in verse 32, then Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. Okay, you're not getting manna. Moses isn't even around anymore. But for you, we could say, 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. Obviously, Christ is referring to Himself here, although He's not explaining what He means yet. And it's obvious the people don't get it, because in verse 34 they say, well, Lord, give us this bread, always. They would love to have an ongoing daily supply of free food. Well, so would I, for that matter. But that's not what Jesus was talking about, so He'll make it a little clearer. In verse 35, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Oh.

And they might have been wondering, what do you mean, you're the bread of life? He says, He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst.

Now, I don't know if they understood it, but we understand that He's speaking of hungering and thirsting spiritually. And I hope we do hunger for knowledge of God's way. We hunger for His way of life and His Spirit to be in us, but they miss that. In verse 30, um, now I'm losing my place. Yeah, verse 38, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. The will of Him who sent me might sound a little familiar if you'd been studying the book of John, because back in chapter 4, He told His disciples, I have food to eat that you don't know about. And that's the story of where He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well while His disciples went in to get food. And they came back and they marveled that He's talking to some woman, let alone a Samaritan woman, and they brought lunch and said, Lord, you've got to eat. And that's when He said, I have food to eat that you don't know about.

And they're saying, somebody bring Him some food? What's going on here? And then He made it clear, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Jesus said His food, let's just say His sustenance was to do the will of God. That alone is a pretty good spiritual analogy of bread from heaven. But God built in more. Back in John chapter 6, if we go to verse 47, Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, He who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. And that doesn't mean that the manna killed them. It just means that manna only sustained physical life which reaches its natural end. But He's going to say, He's speaking spiritually, we can look to eternal life. And verse 50, This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, and which I shall give for the life of the world. Now that sounds a bit much. Jesus made a bold statement. We understand it now to pretty clearly explain the symbols of the Passover. And we just commemorated that the night before last, and we read these scriptures. He doesn't take the time to explain it to these people here. I imagine He probably explained it more clearly to the disciples later. Let's pick up in verse 53 and read several verses. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me. Abides can mean stays or lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so He who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate manna, and they're now dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.

As I said, I want to emphasize that Jesus spoke of abiding in him, and vice versa. I'll note that terminology again and momentarily, but if you will, let's turn away from John and visit Luke 22.

Where we want to make very clear that Jesus was not at all talking about cannibalism, and we're not interested in that. He shows that he's speaking symbolically.

Luke 22, beginning in verse 19, of course this is the Passover that Christ kept with His disciples, where He introduced the new symbols. So in verse 19 it says, He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body. He could just as well have said, This is my flesh, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Okay, we are to do it as we just did in remembrance of Him. And He goes on to say similarly about His blood. In verse 20, He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.

So we should clearly understand the bread that God provides, and the true bread of life that Jesus Christ was, we partake of symbolically at the Passover. When we take, you know, a little piece of this, you know, we take it in and we realize it represents Jesus Christ's life. But let's say we understand it's a symbol. We do not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation. And I don't know if anybody here had formerly been in the Catholic Church where their teaching is that when you take that bread, it magically transforms into Jesus's actual flesh there in your mouth, which, yeah, that's pretty disgusting. And, you know, the Catholic Church adopted this pretty bizarre teaching from paganism, you know, a long time ago. And I think modern people believe it because they miss what Christ actually meant, you know, so they don't understand the annual Passover. They don't understand the ways that this can represent taking Jesus Christ into our life. We can understand, and we do understand, but I want to consider a couple of other ways that we can see taking that bread of life, you know, to sustain us spiritually. As I said, we read the most obvious way is through the Passover symbols. We take in the bread from heaven symbolically when we take that small piece of unleavened bread and we drink that small bit of wine as part of the Passover service. And Jesus said, this represents my body, my flesh, and my blood.

But what other ways can we take the bread of life? Symbolically. We certainly eat food more often than once a year, even though we only take the Passover once a year. The fact that we have to continually take in food could help us to understand that we need to take in the bread of life continuously. I mentioned John 4 verse 34, where Jesus said his will—no, let me say that correctly—his food was to do the will of the Father. We need to be like Jesus, so we want to make our food doing the will of the Father. And part of that involves learning what the will of the Father is. How do we do that? Well, we look at this, and I want to—well, you might write this down, but I'll bet you have it memorized. Matthew 4 and verse 4 is where Christ famously said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

So we don't live just by bread. We need food, but we need to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. When Jesus said that, he was quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3, which is a time that God was reminding the children of Israel that even though he'd been miraculously feeding them with manna for 40 years, physical sustenance and— let me say that in English—physical sustenance alone was not adequate for what he wanted in them.

Physical life alone doesn't amount to much, because people will eventually still grow old and weak and die. We have to have eternal life. If we—to continue and to do that, we need to develop godly character. And we know—but if you've been in the church long enough, you remember hearing Mr. Armstrong talk about developing godly, righteous character.

And we want—we need God's Word to do that. We need to live by the Word of God. That's real life-sustaining. Matter of fact, we're in the Gospels. There's a scripture—John, not John, Matthew 19, beginning in verse 18. Matthew 19 and verse 18. Actually, I want to begin before 18. I think verse 16. Sorry, I couldn't read my own writing. One came to him—that is, to Jesus Christ and said, Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

And I said, we want to have eternal life. We're talking about the bread of life. What did Christ say? He said, well, first of all, why do you call me good? There's no one good but God. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments. You want to enter life, keep the commandments. He asked which ones, and Christ mentioned several of the Ten Commandments. In verse 20, the young man said, I've done these for my youth. What do I still lack? Well, if you want to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor. But the point is, God said, if you want to have—Jesus Christ said, if you want to have life, keep the commandments. God's word. As I said, Jesus Christ is the bread of life. John chapter 1 verse 1 reminds us that Jesus Christ is also the Word.

You probably know it by heart. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in that way, we could see that God's Word and God's law is an expression of God's character and personality. The law isn't some arbitrary thing where he said, let's make up a list of funny rules that they'll have to follow. God's law is just what he is. It's the way he is. So when we live God's law, we're expressing love towards God and love towards each other.

And so the Word that was with God for all eternity when he was manifested to Jesus Christ, he was an expression of the nature and character of God. That's why we can say this book represents Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus Christ was in the flesh. Again, I didn't plan to quote Mr. Armstrong, but he said the Bible was Jesus Christ in print in one way of speaking. So we don't physically eat the Bible, but when we read and study it, we're spiritually ingesting God's Word. You know, the Word of God, not bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And that's why we call messages that we hear on Sabbath and Holy Days spiritual food, or even articles and booklets we read. When we have messages on the Holy Days, we talk about having meat in due season. It's symbolism, but it's part of feeding on the Word of God.

And as I say that it's worth noting, we don't just eat once in our lives, as I said, not once a month, once a week. We need that continual sustenance, and we need a balanced diet, just like we need a balanced physical diet with proteins and carbohydrates and minerals and vitamins.

We need to study some prophecy, but we also need to study the poetry in the Bible, the writings, the doctrine, the history, all in a good balance. There's lots we can learn about Bible study, but I don't want to carry on with that today, because I want to look at one more way that we can take in the bread of life into our lives every day.

And I just tried to match, you know, God's Word with Jesus Christ as the Word, so we could discuss the need to read and learn from God's Word daily, but also we want to consider the person of Jesus Christ as the Word, and the person of Jesus Christ as the bread of life.

We read in John 6 him clearly saying he was the true bread that came down from heaven, the bread of life, and he said we need to eat the bread of life.

So he said we do this in one sense annually when we take the symbol of the Passover, and in another sense we do it daily as we read and study God's Word.

The other way we can do this is when Christ enters into us, literally, and I mean that through the continual renewal of God's Holy Spirit. That's why I mentioned when he said he would abide in us.

If you will, let's go back to John 6 and note a scripture there, John 6 and verse 56.

I did read this. John 6 verse 56. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Now, this was earlier in his ministry. If you turn ahead to John chapter 14, we'll see that during that last Passover with his disciples, he used this terminology again, and he was trying to explain to them that after his crucifixion, they would receive the Holy Spirit.

So, John 14 and verse 23. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The Old King James says, We'll make our abode with him. I believe abode and abide are related. That's the same word with different vowels.

If you back up a few verses to verse 16, we see some of how that works. Of course, the disciples weren't entirely clear on this whole Holy Spirit thing, and I think they wouldn't be fully clear on it until it was in them, but Christ is trying to explain it to them. Verse 16.

I'll start with verse 15 because he says, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, he will give you another helper, that it may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, which the world can't receive, because it neither knows it nor knows, sees it nor knows it, but you know it, for it dwells with you, and it will be in you. I hope I didn't throw you off substituting the pronouns that should have been there.

But the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, was telling his disciples, it's with you.

And that's something we tell our young people in the church, that even before baptism, they have a calling from God, and the Spirit works with them. The Holy Spirit is what enables someone to be called in the first place, and realize they want to know more. That's what leads them to repentance, and eventually baptism. And then after baptism, when a minister lays on hands, they ask God to please impart the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit enters them, and it's actually, well, we understand the Holy Spirit isn't a separate person. It's not part of a triune God, that are inseparable. We see the Holy Spirit as the Bible describes it, as the essence, the nature, and the power of God. And so God's essence, and power, and presence comes into us, and God the Father and Jesus Christ are entering us. Let's turn to 1 John chapter 3. So I have only a couple more scriptures I want to read. 1 John 3 beginning in verse 24.

Remember Christ we read, He said, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments, and we'll come and make our abode with you. John says something similar here. 1 John 3, 24. Now he who keeps the commandments abides in him, and he in him. In other words, the commandment keeper abides in Christ, and Christ abides in the commandment keeper. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit.

And so it's sustenance, spiritual sustenance, that we want to have come into us every single day.

If you will, let's turn to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.

Galatians 2, 20. I call this my go-to scripture for this particular subject.

When I was an ambassador of college, one of my favorite professors told us this was his favorite scripture. And over the years I've come to appreciate it more. Because Paul writes, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

That's important. Christ lives in me. Every one of you could say that. I could say Christ lives in me. Christ lives in you. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I think of this, as I said, when we eat that food every day, our body breaks it down into molecules. They're broken up and absorbed into us. So, as I said, we are what we eat. If Christ is in us and the Spirit is renewed every day, his essence is becoming part of us. And we say at baptism the Holy Spirit joins with the Spirit in man that gives us intellect and understanding, and we become a new creation. If we are what we eat physically, then spiritually, if we take in the bread of life, the Son of God, what we are to become is Sons of God. We want to be what we eat in that sense. That's why Christ said we've got to eat him spiritually. And we do that daily. I was wrong. I had one more scripture which I could reference. It's in Philippians 1 verse 19, just a few pages away. Philippians 1.19. Paul uses a particular turn of phrase. He says, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. I like when he references the supply of the Spirit, because God doesn't just give us the Spirit and say, now you've got it. But we should pray daily that God will renew the Spirit and continue that supply. So it's coming into us as we're daily taking in the essence and nature of God. And of course, I've heard it liken to a stream where it flows in and then it could flow out of us through our words and our actions, living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As I think of this, I've been venturing into how the Holy Spirit works in us and changes us. That's a good topic for the next Holy Day season that's coming about seven weeks, seven weeks from today. You know, it was until later, I thought, maybe I should have talked about the wave sheaf today, but that's essence for the harvesting the food that we need. But I'll say this time of year, we focus a lot, you know, on what we eat. We focus on bread. And we know that during these days of Unleavened Bread, leaven pictures sin. We must put sin out of our lives, but we don't stop eating bread. We eat it Unleavened. So the bread is a symbol we want to continue to taking in bread. It's been a staple of man's diet for as long as man's been around. When God led Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, kept them alive by providing bread miraculously. Manna was a type of the true bread from heaven, miraculously given by God. But the true bread from heaven is much more important. When Jesus came, he explained that that was him. He was the bread of life. We have access to that.

We should want to take it in every day because that bread can give us eternal life. So I think of every day when we eat some of this, it should remind us that we should be taking Jesus Christ into us every single day, looking forward to that eternal life.