Jesus---the Bread of Life, John 6:35-69

Today, we will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. It is a somber celebration. We can rejoice that Jesus provided a way (the only way) of restoration with God, but we must never forget that the way of salvation was secured with Jesus’ broken body and shed blood.
In this passage from John 6, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He is the Bread of Life. Apart from Him, there is nothing but starvation and death.
Earlier in the chapter, Jesus feeds 5,000 or more people who had followed Him to hear His teaching. Much of the crowd remained with Jesus, waiting for more miracles, and perhaps more food.
At this point, Jesus makes His first “I AM” statement. (John built his Gospel around seven miracles and seven “I AM” statements from Christ.)
With these declarations, Jesus is establishing Himself as the God the Old Testament Israelites worshipped, and as the One in whom hope could be found.
Jesus is overt and explicit in His statement. In fact, He is so graphic that most of the crowd abandons Him. He is just too much for them.
As we prepare to take the bread and the cup a little later, I want to examine three truths from this passage to help us in our preparation.