Our Daily Bread

August 17, 1997

John 6:51 I am the living bread.

Ephesians 5:18 ... be (being) filled with the Spirit.

INTRODUCTION

What is your favorite food? What was a great meal that you can remember? Can you think of one or two or three? What did you have for dinner, say, last Thursday?

Favorite foods can reflect changing tastes. When I was six months old my favorite food was milk. I graduated to hot dogs, spaghetti, hamburgers, pizza. Then for a while I think a big juicy steak was tops. Now I think seafood is as good as anything.

Favorite meals remind us of special times. Family get-togethers. Holidays. Vacations. But we don't stop eating in between the spectacular times. We don't even stop eating when the food is not at all spectacular. In between the great meals there are ordinary meatloaf days, and sandwiches on the run, and even potato soup meals. They may not be spectacular, but they keep us going. You may not remember exactly what was for dinner, but it kept the hunger pangs away for a few hours.

So what does all this have to do with the lessons of the day?

TWO TRUTHS TO TAKE HOME TODAY

JESUS HIMSELF IS OUR LIFE

First of all, Jesus says that he is the living bread. He says we must eat his body, broken for us like the five loaves and two fishes that fed the 5,000. He says we must drink his blood, his life poured out for the salvation of the whole world. He is speaking about a level of reality that takes all the faith we can muster.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night (as recorded in the third chapter of John's Gospel) Jesus cut his flattery short by saying, "You have to be born again!" Nicodemus recoiled from that figure— and said, "How can I take the fetal position and get in my mother's womb again?" But Jesus was talking reality beyond the literal meaning of the word. Being born again is a reality. And eating the Bread of Life and drinking the cleansing, healing Blood of the Lamb is also spiritual reality. By faith we share in the very life of God.

Eternal life is a quality of reality, reflecting the love of God Himself. When we say "eternal life" we think only in terms of never-ending eternity. We think of living forever. And that is true. But if we simply lived on and on in the same plane of existence it would not be "eternal life." And by the same understanding, we do not need to wait until we die to enjoy the beginnings of "eternal life."

"Eternal life, begun below,
Now fills my heart and soul.
I'll sing his praise forevermore,
Who hath redeemed my soul!"

Eternal life is for us a never-ending theosis.

The sacrament of communion is a reminder that a real, living, breathing Person came from God's glory into the world where we live every day. Jesus was not an "idea" or a beautiful message from another incomprehensible realm. Jesus is the Message that God is, and that God wants to bring us all into the deeper reality that is eternal life.

To connect with Jesus is to begin to know life at its ultimate level. But to connect is only the beginning. The glimpses of the way God relates to us— the Door, the Bread, the Light ... are clues to the nature of eternal life, life centered in God. The final "I AM" saying of Jesus is "I AM the True Vine— ye are the branches." The life we know is an on-going, growing thing. And this is what it means to be filled with the Spirit, as well.

BEING FILLED WITH LIVING BREAD IS AN ON-GOING REALITY CHOICE

• To be filled with the Spirit is the whole purpose of salvation

  I need to be careful that I do not make it seem less than that. Jesus came and became the living bread so that we might share his life. That life does not begin in heaven when we die, but here and now when the Holy Spirit brings life, and forgiveness and adopts us into God's family.

• To be filled with the Spirit begins with a crisis of obedience and surrender

  I also need to be careful that I do not de-emphasize what it means to be sanctified wholly or entirely. One aspect of being filled with the Spirit is the response of God to a complete and total consecration. the fullness of the Spirit, in that sense, means a crisis of cleansing and empowering. We dare not stop short of the witness of God's Spirit that He has accepted our living sacrifice (Romans 12;1,2.)

• To be filled with the Spirit is also a daily necessity

  Ephesians 5:18 is a present imperative: "Be continually filled with the Spirit." We cannot go on being filled unless and until we have let the Lord fill us. But then there is a verse we all need to learn and use every day— Luke 11:13 "If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!"

Get up in the morning— make eye-contact with Jesus! Tell Him you love Him. Tell him you're sorry if and where you may have goofed. And then ask the Father to fill you for today— just ask Him! Use Luke 11:13! Believe that God hears— and go in the strength and power of the Spirit to walk with Jesus all day.

CONCLUSION

No meal, no matter how wonderful, can last a lifetime! We need a healthy diet; we need our daily bread. No "feeling" no matter how true and wonderful, can give us strength for a year or a month or hardly even a week. We need regular fillings.

Did you ever think that this is at least part of what Jesus is teaching is in his "Lord's Prayer"? We need the living bread as our daily bread! And we need the sacrament of communion to help us keep making that connection. Every time we have the privilege of communion the spiritual reality world somehow connects with the physical reality world in which we now live.