I AM: The Bread of Life

Want you to grab your bibles and turn to the Book of John chapter six.

Morgan mentioned tonight at six pm we have a special revival service. My

hope for today is we would start the year off right. And I think

one of the ways that we can start off right is we get together,

we passionately pursue Jesus. Tonight will be an opportunity for you to worship like

crazy, show Jesus that you mean business. And then afterwards, we have

an incredible speaker. His name is Manny Orango, and Manny will preach,

We'll open up the altars and we'll begin to pray and seek Jesus together,

and I want you to be here. My hope is that this place is

standing room only tonight, and it is a great way for us to start

off the year, letting Jesus know we're serious, that all the things that

we've seen last year, the last few years in our che we want more

this year. So come expecting, come hungry. Today we are beginning a

brand new series that will lead us all the way to Easter. We are

going to teach on seven statements that Jesus said about himself. These seven statements

are referred to as the I am statements, and they are found in the

Book of John. And we're going to look at the first one today,

John chapter six, verse thirty. I'm going to read a couple verses,

and then I want to pray for you. So so they asked him,

this is a group of people that gathered around Jesus. What sign than will

you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written,

he gave them bread from heaven to eat. I want to ask everyone to

bow your heads, close your eyes. I want you to repeat this prayer

after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change

my life in Jesus' name. Amen. Curious how many of you have ever

heard the phrase the Mandela effect the Mandela effect. This phrase originated in the

late eighties early nineties. So if you are a gen xer and like the

eighties and nineties was like your life, you will remember where the Mendela effect

originated from. It is this idea that you can change the truth if you

get enough people to say something different, that you have the ability to change

the way that people remember history. If you can get enough people to incorrectly

share the same thing that sound a little bit familiar. In the nineteen eighties,

there was this prevailing idea that Nelson Mandela, who'd been recently arrested,

had died in prison a martyr. Now, I remember being in high school

when this happened, and people everywhere believed it. In fact, I had

friends that would wear these T shirts memorializing Nelson Mandela. I had a couple

friends that could tell you the exact spot they were, what they were doing,

what they were listening to when they found the tragic news that Nelson Mandela

had passed away in prison. This rumor became universally accepted. You see,

your memory is highly suggestible. Other people's opinions and other people's stories of their

memories can influence what a person remembers and believes. In fact, widespread incorrect

information, when shared repeatedly, can subtly over time, influence what a person

believes or what a person remembers. The Mandela effect. Here's the truth.

Nelson Mandela didn't die in prison. In fact, most of us that were

gen Xer's discovered Mandela didn't die in prison. When he was released from prison

twenty seven years later, and then he became the President of South Africa and

he died at a ripe old age in twenty thirteen from complications with pneumonia.

I think the greatest current popular example of the Mandela effect is people's view of

Jesus today. If you were to ask the average person in the Seattle area,

and you would ask them do you go to church? Odds are they'd

say no, and then they would give you a multitude of reasons. It

would be like, I don't like Christians. Christians are hypocrites. I'm not

a religious person. I'm one of those nuns that doesn't believe anything. And

they would go into an entire speech about why they don't go to church and

their view of church and their view with Christians and their view of religion.

And then if you ask those same people, hey, just out of curiosity,

what do you think about Jesus, they'd respond by saying, oh,

dude, I'm cool with Jesus. Jesus is awesome. And you would say,

well, why do you like Jesus? Well, I mean, Jesus

is like everything that a person should be man. He's all about peace and

love and harmony, it was this amazing teacher, and then they would they

would talk about how much they like Jesus and the early two thousands, people

would wear the shirt that boldly proclaimed Jesus is my homeboy. Like people are

cool with Jesus. You probably heard many preachers say people like Jesus, they

just have a problem with Christians, right. Does this sound familiar to many

of you Americans. These are some stats that were recently discovered. Eighty nine

percent of Americans have a positive view of Jesus. Seventy six percent of Americans

believe Jesus was a real person. So seventy six percent believe in the historical

Jesus. Eighty percent of Americans believe that there's some sort of higher power.

Now most believe higher power is different than what you and I believe. But

so you've got the vast majority of Americans believe in some sort of God.

They have an incredibly high view of Jesus. They believe Jesus was a real

person. But these same people were asked, do you believe Jesus is God?

Less than fifty percent of them believe that. In the Seattle area,

it's eighteen percent of people believe Jesus is God, but everybody's cool with Jesus.

I find that the most ironic thing in the world because if you actually

study the things that Jesus said, how can you hear what he said,

not believe he's God and be cool with Jesus? Now I think we all

agree. Morgan Butcher, who was hosting the service, who was on that

video, Morgan's universally loved. Like in our region, Morgan was the youth

pastor Adventure when most churches in the time, Morgan was the youth pastor here,

the average church went through six youth pastors. After time, Morgan became

legendary in this region. He like the room is about Morgan is a youth

pastor, just get larger as time passes. But the average person, if

you ask them if they know Morgan Butcher, they'll be like, oh,

I know Morgan, big tall, blonde ball dude, right, and they

say, what do you I was gonna say blonde, I don't know where

it came from. Well, you don't know about Morgan. When he's not

here. He puts on a wig, blonde, wanders around. He's into

that. But uh, the one thing about Morgan is everybody loves Morgan like

you just universally love Morgan like I always say that the two people that everyone

who knows them universally agrees they're great people and loves Morgan and Die. Now

I know that this is unique for you because if someone came up to you

and said, oh, you go to Brandon Beale's church, Yeah, I

don't like Brandon, you'd be like, yeah, he's hard to like.

Like you wouldn't do that. But if any of you, if somebody came

up to you and said I don't like Diabels, they'd be like, you're

the problem. They came up to you and said they like Morgan, you'd

like you've never even met Morgan. But if they said I don't like Brandon,

they'd be like, yeah, yeah, I get it. But anyways,

so you're understanding that if Morgan or Die will glue die in here started

walking around saying I'm God, you'd laugh at first because you'd think they were

kidding, and they're like, no, I'm dead serious, I'm God.

And then they started gaining followers. You'd start calling me, there's something wrong

with Morgan. He should be in a mental institution. He needs to take

medication. Or something, there's something wrong with Morgan. If people begin to

follow, you'd get concerned, like you would be really, really really upset.

After a while, it'd go from ninety percent of you that like Morgan

to about nine percent of you like Morgan. Because you so vehemently disagreed with

what Morgan was saying about himself. It changed the way you viewed Morgan.

Come on, but everybody's cool with Jesus. It's the Mandela effect. There's

this verse in Ecclesiastes that says this. It says God has made everything beautiful

in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet

no one can fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I love that verse because that verse explains why eighty percent of Americans believe in

a higher power. Because from the moment God created you, he created you

with this sense inside of you that there has to be an eternity. I

remember, before I ever went to church, before I ever had faith in

anything, I would lay there in bed at night wondering what this life is

all about. There had to be a purpose, There had to be some

reason that we lived. You've probably talked to somebody who professes to be an

atheist before, so an atheist believes there is no God, there was no

beginning. When you die, that's the end. You rot in your grave.

If you've ever met someone who's an atheist and you ask them these questions,

so you really believe when you die, that's it. Life is over.

You rot in your grave, you cease to exist. If they look

at you and say, yes, that's what I believe, you will follow

it up by saying, well, that's kind of morbid, and they'll agree

with you. So like, I know it's sad, but it's just the

truth. Well why is that because from the moment God created you, he

created you with this sense of eternity in your mind. I don't know how

people are able to separate who Jesus is from what Jesus said. The Gospel

of John was written by John specifically to prove that Jesus was the Messiah,

and John did it in a multitude of ways making this argument. He shared

and he does everything in these multiples of seven he does. He described seven

miracles throughout the Book of John that Jesus performed that prove his divinity. We've

done a series on those seven miracles, it's called signs. We've actually in

the What's Next page provided the link so you can go back and hear those

messages because it will really help you, especially as we talk about the statement

and that Jesus said about himself. So not only were they these seven miracles

that John described, but he also described these seven statements that Jesus specifically said

about himself. And these are called the I M statements. So John from

the very beginning wants you to get what he is trying to accomplish. So

at the very beginning of the Book of John, he says this, John

one to one, he said, in the beginning was the Word, and

the word was with God. By the way, the word here is Jesus.

This is who he's talking to me. He's talking about Jesus. He's

describing him as the Word. And he said the word was with God and

the word was God. So he's saying, Jesus has always been God,

He's always been with God. He's been with God from the very beginning,

and he said he was with God in the beginning. Now he's explaining that

Jesus is not only God and with God, but Jesus is the Creator.

He said, through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was

made that has been made. Then he says, go down to verse fourteen.

It said the word became flesh. That is your clue that this word

described in John is Jesus. So the word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and

only son who came from heaven full of grace and truth. Fast forward to

chapter six. So John is making it clear that Jesus is the Messiah.

Chapter six begins with one of those seven miracles, the Feeding of five thousand.

You might have very little church experience, but you've heard the story the

feed of five thousand. A multitude of people had gathered around Jesus. Most

scholars believe it was like twelve to fifteen thousand people. You might be wondering,

why is it called the feeding of five thousand? Then did Jesus only

feed a third of them? No, he fed them all. But they

statistically back then only counted men. But there were also women there, and

there were also children there, So scholars believe it was over double that number.

So imagine Jesus is at the peak of his popularity. People from all

over want to see this guy. They want to hear this guy's teaching.

They've heard rumors about his miracles, and they want to see if it's true

for themselves. But that day, twelve fifteen thousand people had gathered around Jesus.

They heard he was there. They came so quickly, they traveled so

far that they didn't even take time to bring food, and they were starving.

So, as the story goes, Jesus takes a couple fish and a

couple loaves of bread, holds him in his hand, gives thanks to Heaven,

and he multiplies the fishes and loaves, and he feeds every single person

that's there, all twelve to fifteen thousand of them. Bible tells us that

they were fully satisfied. In fact, the crazy part about the miracle is

afterwards, the disciples gathered up the leftovers, and the Bible tells us that

this initial lunch that multiplied had even twelve baskets full leftover. Unbelievable miracle.

I want to point out a couple things. Notice how there were thousands of

people following Jesus at this point. I like to refer to them as groupies,

not followers. There's a huge difference between somebody who occasionally chases around a

leader to see where they're at, jumps from church to church because they heard

a leader is speaking there, and an actual follower of Jesus. Because after

Jesus died, there was only one hundred and twenty people in the upper room,

So where did the thousands go? Well, they thought he must not

be the Messiah, he's nothing special and started following somebody else. I would

argue that nothing has changed today that was free. So after this miracle,

Jesus is tired, and the story goes he walks across the water to the

other side of the Sea of Galilee. People get up the next morning,

they can't find Jesus, and then people start saying, I think he's on

the other side of the lake, and so they can't walk over the water.

They walk all the way around the lake, and that leads us to

this story in chapter six. Are you with me all right? We're gonna

get to the im statement in a second, I promise. When they found

Jesus on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi,

how did you get here? I always wondered Yeah, did Jesus take time

to actually walked on the water all the way across? It was a shortcut.

Now they had to walk all the way around. Jesus actually responds by

correcting them. Remember this like vision that most of us have about Jesus is

that if he lived today to have really long hair, he'd be wearing a

tied I shirt. He'd have his arm around people, and they'd be swinging

in a love circle, singing kumbay ya. This is the image you have

of Jesus. Well, this is what Jesus did to these thousands of people

that had traveled from all over to find him. They wake up the next

morning and the food that they'd eaten at lunchtime had now digested, and guess

what, they were hungry again. So they're looking for another meal and they

think, oh, that guy who fed us earlier, where did he go?

Now this is a key point. You got to catch this. So

these were Jewish people for thousands of years. They had been reading and studying

and memorizing the Torah. They knew the story of Moses, most of them

had it memorized, and they knew that there was a point where they were

wandering in the wilderness, and God used Moses, and they provided manna and

quail, and they were full. They provided it in the morning and then

in the evening, and the Jewish people that were following Jesus that day thought,

he is like Moses. Just as God used Moses to give us bread

and quail in the morning, Jesus is gonna give us bread and quail,

bread and fish in the morning, and in the evening. They were hungry

again, so they seek out Jesus. This is what's going through their head.

They see Jesus, say where have you been? How did you get

here? Jesus knows exactly why they came, and he doesn't mince words when

he says, very truly, I tell you, have you ever said to

anyone when you really wanted to get their attention? Honestly? I do this

all the time. I say, seriously, guys, honestly, Like everything

else I've said isn't true, but this one I'm being honest. So this

is Jesus trying to get everyone's attention. It says, very truly, I

tell you you aren't you You are looking for me, not because of the

signs I performed, but because if you ate the loaves and had your feel

you're here because you're hungry again, and they're like, yeah, we are.

He said, do not work for food that spoils, but for food

that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

For on him, God the Father has placed his seal of approval. Jesus

basically says, you people don't get it. You keep desiring bread that you

will eat and eventually it will leave you hungry again. He said, I

am offering you bread that will satisfy you for an eternity. But you want

signs. You want this bread that you will digest and eventually be hungry again.

But I am offering you much more. And they respond by going back

to the Torah and everything that they had memorized and every thing that they had

learned. And he starts talking about God and approval from God and eternal life.

And they say what any good Jew would say, They say, what

must we do to do the works that God requires? So are our church

does reading through the Bible every year? If you are joining the church on

the through the Bible, you've just got to the book of the Bible where

we typically lose people. You are beginning Leviticus. Stick with it. I

promise you'll make your way through it. But remember, these people knew the

levitical law. They desired to follow the levitical law. They believed that following

these laws and these festivals, in these feasts, that doing these practices,

in these works made them righteous. So they were able to stand before God

because they've done all of these things and be right with God. So they

look at Jesus and they say, is there more that God needs us to

do? And Jesus says this, He said, the work of God is

this to believe in the one he sent. Now we read that and we

think cool. But that was probably one of the more offensive things Jesus could

have ever said. This is the equivalent of Morgan Butcher, who you think

is a legend, die Beals, who you think is such an extraordinary person

no one should speak ill of her. This is the equivalent of them saying

I'm God, and you'd be like, WHOA what are you saying? Jesus

is saying you don't need to do anything. You need to put your belief

in me. You need to put your faith in me. You see,

the Jews thought righteousness came from obeying the law. But the only work that

really matters is belief in Jesus. You can't good your way into heaven.

I have people all the time that have like their grandma passes away and their

grandma was never a Christian and never professed faith in Jesus and never went to

church. But Grandma was good. Grandma loved people, She cared about people.

Grandpa was helpful. He always walked little old ladies across the street.

He always worked in the food kitchen. Grandpa did good, Grandma did good.

And I hear this over and over again from people, and they say,

he does that mean I'll see them someday in heaven. Now, I

am not the judge. I don't want to be the judge. And I

always kind of kind of veer the conversation away for me having to say judgment

over someone. But to be really honest good doesn't get you into heaven.

You can be good your whole life. You can do everything right, be

the best person. By the way. Most of us think we're good because

we're better than our neighbor. At least I'm not as bad as that person,

but we think I'm good. That should be good enough. I don't

swear. I don't cheat all my taxes. I'm never laid. I don't

speed when I drive my car. I mean, we give all these arguments

on why we deserve heaven and why we deserve eternity. Well, the problem

is if you don't know Jesus, you can be the best, most righteous

holy person that has ever lived, and you will be lost for eternity.

And you're thinking, that's not fair. I didn't make this rule up.

So Jesus is trying to redirect their thinking from works to belief in the Messiah

who was sent from heaven. Then they understanding what Jesus is saying, this

is what they say. Next, All right, what sign then will you

give that we may see it and believe you. Okay, you're saying you're

God, prove it. They just seen him feed five thousand and must not

have been too impressed. And then remember they do this callback to Moses here

because they thought he was like Moses, and they said, our ancestors ate

the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread

from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, very truly, I

tell you, says him, like pay attention again, he says, it

is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven. Now that in

itself was like Jesus slapping them across the face. I would like to describe

this. So they didn't have the Bible back then, but if Jesus would

have been holding a Bible, would have been speaking from the Bible. Their

reference to him being like Moses, giving Moses the credit for the bread and

the quail just outraged Jesus. He'd have slapped his Bible down on his pulpit

and he said, it is not Moses who did this miracle. You people,

why do you keep following a man? Why do you always desire to

make men heroes. Moses didn't do anything. This was provided by my Father

in heaven. And he said, in the Bread of God is the bread

that comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world. He's trying to

say, God, I'm trying to give you bread that won't leave you hungry

afterwards. I'm trying to offer you bread that will satisfy you for an eternity.

Here's proof that they still didn't get it. Respond by saying, okay,

sir, I like that. You know don't be upset. Give us

this bread. Then I love this because bottom line, what do they say.

They're saying, So you're saying I can eat bread and it'll satisfy me

forever. Give me some of that. And then Jesus says, I am

the bread of life. What was he saying? He was saying, you

keep asking God for a gift. What you're failing to realize is the gift

is standing in front of you. I am the gift from God. You

keep asking for bread, and the bread is standing in front of you.

You want this bread that will satisfy if I you forever, here I am.

And then he says, whoever comes to me will never go hungry,

whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Verse thirty five begins with these

three words. It says, then Jesus declared. Now, for some reason,

I've read this hundreds of times, but that word declare hit me like

a ton of bricks. So I started researching what that word meant and why

they chose that word From the original language. That word declare means to announce

officially, to proclaim, to say something in an emphatic manner, to state

clearly in explicit terms. This is the equivalent of wondering, I wonder if

that guy is gonna run for president. I wonder if she's gonna run for

president. And you're wondering the whole time, and then they hold a press

conference and they declare, today I announced my candidacy for president of the United

States. They make that declaration. This was Jesus saying when everyone is wondering,

and I wonder if this guy is God, wonder if this guy is

the Messiah. Wonder who this guy is. This is Jesus saying I am.

And his audience knew what I Am meant because they knew the Torah and

they knew. There was a time when a burning bush that was God spoke

to Moses. And Moses looked at that bush and said, how will I

know? How do I know that you're not just some random talking bush?

And God says, I am who I am? So they knew this,

and Moses says, well, how will the people know that God is talking

to me? And he said, you tell them, I Am has sent

me to you. The name of God is held in such reverence by the

Jewish people that they won't even say it or write it like it is offensive

and dietshonorable to say his name, And here is Jesus declaring I am God.

Jesus said it. What are you gonna do about it? I want

to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I have one

question for you today. Are you right with Jesus? If you were to

be completely honest, are you right now in a right relationship with Jesus.

Well, my hope is that if you're not, or even if you're not

sure, that you would leave this place knowing you're in a right relationship with

Jesus. So if you're here today you do not know Jesus, but you

want to. Maybe you've prayed a prayer, you've gone to church. But

if you were to be honest, you'd say, man, I'm not right

with God, and you want to say today, I want to leave knowing

I'm right with Jesus. I'm gonna count to three, and when I say

three, I want you to raise your hand. So if you hear you

do not know Jesus, but you want to, or you've fallen away and

you want to say, I want to leave today knowing I'm right with Jesus.

When I say three, raise your hand, here I go. One,

two, raise your hand, now three hands every way I love it.

Put your hands done? Can I ask everyone to stand upon your feet.

I'm gonna ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I'm

gonna ask everyone that's here to pray a prayer with me. I ask everyone

to pray this prayer even if you didn't raise your hand, because I want

those that raise their hand to know they're not alone adventure. Like we're family,

and family does things together. So we want these people to know that

we support them, and we're with them, and we're for them. But

then, in addition, I know that there are some of you you wish

you would have raised your hand, but you think you lost your moment.

Pray this prayer like you mean this prayer and this is for you, and

you leave this place right with Jesus. So with every eye closed, I

want everyone to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus,

I stand before you today. I admit I've messed up. I've made mistakes.

But today I ask you to forgive me, and I invite you to

come into my life and to change me. I choose from this day forward

to serve you with my life. Thank you for forgiving me and for saving

me in Jesus' name, Amen.