Episode Transcript
Tim 00:00:07 Hi, and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, and along with Ajai and Mark, we are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in.
Tim 00:00:23 Welcome to the unveiling. This is your host, Tim, with Ajai and Mark the usual suspects. Finally, back together. if you're listening to this in the future and haven't been following us every week to this point, we did take a, I guess about a month break, guys, for the various things in life that we each had to attend to. So it is good to be back together behind the microphones and ready to spread the true one true gospel. So tonight, episode 42, we are beginning a series on the seven I ams that Jesus, used about himself in the Book of John. And I think tonight we're gonna start, we're gonna go in biblical order. And the first one would be, I am the Bread of Life. And this is found in John chapter six, verse 35, where it specifically says, Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever will come to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. So just to give a really quick summation of where we are at the beginning of the book of John, chapter six is, Jesus feeding the 5,000, He's taken the five loaves and the two fishes, blessed and broken them and fed 5,000 men plus all the other people that accompanied them. So really, in total, a lot more than 5,000 people. And then, because he had been meeting, he met their physical needs, People wanted to kind of, elevate him so that he'd do more of it, and he broke off from the crowds and went back to Erum across the sea, a Galilee where the crowd did eventually catch up with them. And, you know, they, they were following him, not because they got some great spiritual message out of this, but because he met their physical needs and that's what they were looking for. So he wanted them to make sure they understood that you're missing the point. I, this is a spiritual lesson. I am the bread of life. You will never be hungry or thirsty again if you partake of me. Now, there's a lot more to it. I suggest that if, as our listeners you dig into that and read some more, but we're gonna dig into it ourselves. So AJAI, why don't you get us started tonight?
Ajai 00:02:35 Yeah, thanks, Tim and Mark, it's good to see you both and it's, I'm so glad to be back after a long time. Yeah. So, you know, we've been talking about, you know, our Lord Jesus Christ and you know, the finish work of our Lord Christ and Christ and Him crucified. And now you know what the cross does is it qualifies us right to receive our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ took away all of our sins and what was between us and God, you know, that was removed and Lord forgave all our sins. And, and then, you know, because of that, you know, the cross is not the end in itself, but cross clears the deck for us to receive something greater and which is our Lord Jesus Christ. So, you know, we see as Tim, like you said, you know, we see that here in John chapter six. Jesus feeds the 5,000 and you know, people were going after him and then, you know, they were going after him for physical bread. They did not, you know, see him as a savior, but they saw him as a miracle worker and and they were going after them, right? So even today, many of us, you know, we think go to Jesus, you know, for things. But in fact, you know, one of the things is Jesus does not give us salvation. He himself is our salvation. So these are some of the statements in John that Lord Jesus makes. Like there are seven statements, I believe. And every of those statements is like about I am, I am this to you. I am the bread of life, you know, I am the light of the world. So the point here is Jesus himself is our eternal life. And without Christ, we really cannot have salvation. I think one of the things we wanted to understand and realize is that, you know, salvation and saving us is not something Jesus does it for us. It's not like, you know, Jesus is taking us from heaven, from hell to heaven, right? You know, that's not really salvation, but salvation is Christ himself. You know, when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he himself becomes our eternal life and the bread of life. I think that is one of the main points that we want to understand here.
Mark 00:05:00 Yeah, I think that's awesome Ajai. And it really fits in well with one of our main missions on the unveiling, and that's unveiling the gospel of the law. If Christ is the gospel, if he is our salvation, he's our bread to eat and our water to drink the focus, our all in all are everything. Then how, how, what's the word I'd be looking for? How really, really, really bad it is to try to substitute that with a set of rules and regulations, how cold and empty that is, as opposed to life in the spirit of Christ. You know, this is just another way is crisis showing us that he himself is the gospel that just reinforces that.
Tim 00:05:46 So I'm looking at this teaching and you know, what strikes me about it is the people of his day were following him because they were getting their physical needs met. If you go a few verses before where Jesus says, I am the bread of life, he says in verse 27, Do not work for food that spoils, but for the 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. What he is telling them is, Don't worry about your daily bread. Don't worry about this, that, and the other. Like, but instead with, I'm right here, look at me. I am eternal life. I am the spiritual. This is what you should be seeking after. Now, he is not telling people to starve to death, but he is trying to show them in the order of importance, so to speak. At least that's what I take from it, aj.
Ajai 00:06:34 Yeah, exactly. Tim. And in fact, you know, if you look at the verse 26 through 29, as it pointed out, right? So when Lord said, you know, do not seek after the food that spoils, but seek the food, you know, that induced eternal life, which the son of man will give you. So again, I think they did not fully understand, right? You know, Jesus is talking about himself. So their mindset is that, okay, now if I get this food that gives me eternal life, then I really don't have to go after Jesus every time, right? So every time I don't have to, whenever I run out of food, I don't have to go after Jesus for another miracle. You know, let me get this, food that, gives me eternal life once and for all. And the other thing we noticed is that, you know, they're asking Jesus, so what much I do or what are the works that God requires me to do so that I can qualify for this eternal life, for this food that you give us? So again, you know, the Lord had to correct there, right? So he's saying that there's nothing for you to do, but to believe. He's saying that they asked him, you know, what much should we do to do the works God requires? And Jesus says, You know, there are no works. The works work of God is this to believe on the one he has sent. So that is very important to note. There is nothing for us to do, but to simply believe. But after that, again, in verse 30, they're again saying that, you know, what sign will you give that we may see and believe? What will you do? See, it's kind of really interesting, right? They just saw the miracle. He turned the five loaves of bread, and then he fed the 5,000 and they're asking for a sign again. And then Jesus has to again clarify, right? He says, You know, very truly I tell you, it's not Moses again. They're saying that, you know, actually in verse 30, it says, What sign will you give that we may see it and believe you, What will you do? Our ancestors say it manner in the wilderness as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Again. They're kind of pointing him back, Hey, you know, give us manna daily so that you know, we can fill our stomachs like Moses did. Then Lord has to correct them again, very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is a bread that comes down from heaven and gives eternal life to the world. And then in verse 34, they're saying again, Okay, we want this bread. Then finally, Lord Jesus says, Right, you know, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not go hungry, and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty. So it took for them a long time to understand that, or I don't know if they even understood this, but what Lord Jesus said is, you know, I am that bread of life, right? You know, it's not that I'm going to give you bread I give myself, and all you need to receive me is to simply believe on me. In other words, you know, believing on the Lord Christ is basically taking him as our food and as our bread and simply receiving him by faith. And the promise is, you know, once we have the Lord Christ, we will never be hungry, and we will never be thirst. You know, our soul will be satisfied at the deepest level.
Tim 00:09:56 All right? So Mark, it sounds to me like something he said in there was, We don't have to, we have to, to believe and nothing else is considered the work of God. Are you telling me I don't need to do all these good works and all these things to be saved or to I'm sorry to keep my salvation? I I was all taught in church that I had to do this and this and this.
Mark 00:10:16 I would say, not only don't you ha you don't have to do that, but you're unable to do it. Okay? And that's why I never got against people that start out in the spirit, and then after they come to salvation, they start doing it of their own strength and power. What if we, if no one is righteous, not one, if our good works are as filthy rags and we couldn't do it well enough to earn salvation or even play the smallest part in salvation, are we all sudden now Superman because we came to the Lord and think that we can somehow by our trying make ourselves more holy? it just, that's just as illogical to me. it's life in the spirit. It's, it's Christ as our focus, turning our eyes to him. And it's just a great, illustration or metaphor or the bread of life. He's our sustainer. He's the one who keeps us alive, our food, he's our drink. you know, you could really meditate on that a lot. I am the bread of life. And obviously it begs to be thought of as, you know, kind of points back to communion as well, which is a way of remembering him, of eating the bread which represents his body.
Tim 00:11:35 Yep. And I see if you go a little bit further down in the passage, IJ stopped basically where Jesus said, I am the bread of life. If you go down to about 1 41 at this, the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. So the Jews understood. Jesus was saying, I'm, I'm God, I'm the son of God. They, they got that. And so they started looking at each other and they said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know, How can he say I came down from heaven? So they're now, they're trying to throw shade on him. You know, first they, they're looking to him to fulfill their needs, but when he doesn't fulfill it the way they want him to, now they're, they're kind of disrespecting him and saying, Oh, he's not who he says he is. And this is, you know, we, we get people today who say, you know, how can God be God if he, if this happens or if that happens cuz God doesn't meet their expectations.
Ajai 00:12:33 Yeah, that is so true, Tim. In fact, you know, even today many people accept Jesus as a prophet, as a miracle worker. And they even, accept him as somebody who never committed sin. But many of us, many have trouble accepting them as a savior, right, As their savior and as their salvation. You know, that's where I think, a lot of people, stumble. In fact, you know, even among Muslims, they do recognize Jesus as a prophet and they say that, you know, he's a sin son of, God, but you know, a son of God as a human, not necessarily as a son of God, as eternal son of God. so I would like to again, you know, kind of go back and emphasize that I think even as Christians, it's hard for us to grasp this fact. Many of us, you know, we think of salvation, we think of healing, and we think of heaven and we think of hell as some things we get from God. But you know, many of us don't grasp that Christ himself, he's our salvation, you know, without Lord Jesus Christ, there's no heaven, there's nothing. In fact, you know, Bible says of God, he's made unto his wisdom and righteousness, redemption and sanctification. And here it says, you know, he's the bread of life. So what really happens during salvation is we receive Christ himself and we could not, as long as sin was upon us, we could not receive Christ. You know, in fact, if you go back to the Garden of Eden at the beginning, you know, we had the tree of life and tree of knowledge of good and evil before Adam and E ate of the tree of life of knowledge of good and evil. You know, God said of any tree you can eat freely except for this, that means the tree of life is also included. And God's intention was that, you know, they eat of the tree of life, which is Lord Jesus Christ and then partake of his life and have communion and fellowship with him. But they did not do that right. Unfortunately, they actually ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And that's when, you know, when you, read Genesis again, it says, you know, Lord threw them out of the garden. And he also had chubs there because, you know, he did not want them to eat of the tree of life in their sinful state and kind of, you know, eternally become and, live in a sinful state. So specifically Bible says, you know, let's say eat of the tree of life, he put CHRO bims there. So until the Lord Jesus Christ died again, right? You know, we had no right to partake of the tree of life. So he had to go to the cross and he had to remove our sins. And all that is so that, you know, we can, he can again bring us a right we lost in the garden that is to eat of himself. So Lord Jesus Christ is our bread. And in fact, our Christian life is all about eating this daily bread every day we eat of Lord Jesus Christed every day and live by him. In fact, you know, if you go down to John chapter six, it says towards end, you know, he that each of me will live by me. That is a Christian life. Every day we partake of Lord Jesus Christ and by faith we receive and, eat of Christ himself and live by him. I think many Christians don't understand this, you know, Christian life is just Christ himself and it's actually eating and drinking the life of Christ himself daily. Many people don't understand that. And our faith primarily consists in actually every day, you know, we can partake of the flesh or we can partake of Christ. And the glorious, privilege we have is we can par partake of Christ freely. So by faith, we actually receive Christ every day and live by that is a Christian life. So either we can partake in the flesh and fall back to the works of the law, or we can live by grace and receive the gift of grace, which is Lord Jesus Christ himself and eat of him and live by him every day.
Mark 00:16:36 <laugh>, I love the, progression of this chapter, John chapter six, The way that Jesus sets the stage for that state, maniah of the bread of life. He starts out by feeding 5,000 with just a little bit of bread and a little bit of fish. So we've already got a picture of the bread there in this, you would think everybody would've fallen on their knees at that moment before him to see a miracle like that. and so then, then he progresses on next. We see him walking across the water, which is another pretty, I would say self-defining act, showing who he really was. So he gets to the other side and these people still were not getting it. They were still just wanting to be fed, not realizing that something was greater than that here in front of them now. And then to go like the completely left field, instead of worshiping him, they say, What must we do to please God? What works must we do to please God? And he start, he turns the focus again to himself. The work of God is this, to believe in the one he sent. And then he brings the focus completely to himself when he says, I am the bread of life. It's just like he's setting up this progression, showing him these things and just continuing to guide him into this conclusion. So it's just very masterful, obviously of God.
Tim 00:18:12 Good point, Mark. I I'm not sure I saw it that way, but I now that you've pointed it out in words, I I actually, it's very, very clear. Thank you. you know, and there's just one more piece to that, that book that I want to throw in here for a minute. You know, this was not a popular teaching of Jesus in the moment. We always know about the 12 disciples, but there were a lot more than 12 disciples following him, at this point in his life. But after this teaching, because he had talked about eating my flush and drinking my blood, many of them were turned off and many walked away from at that point. And that's when he literally ended up with the 12 disciples that we are, are aware of and, and through history. And they stuck around and they said, Don't you know, Jesus said to them, Don't you wanna leave too? And this is Donald Vaon, verse 67. And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the holy one of God. That's, that's a powerful statement from somebody who's following what looks to be, human in the flesh. They've seen past that and they've accepted the greater glory and they have accepted Christ and they are truly eating of the body in drinking in the blood of Christ.
Mark 00:19:30 Yeah, I think there's a, there's a line that things break down and that's, and the Apostle Paul talks about this all over the place that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it a righteousness that is by faith. But the people of Israel who pursued righteousness, but they pursued it by the law, they didn't obtain their goal because they pursued it as if by works, not by faith. And that's why I think the people that were in the streets, the tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes, the people that the religious Jews looked down on, they had a cleaner slate. This is just a theory, it's not scripture, but they had a cleaner slate that was blank, that could receive Christ where all the religious people are already leaning toward. It's about me, it's about what I do, my works. And that's why their first question was, what are the works I have to do? You know? And so it's just, he's just pointing this with his life so much. Backing up the Apostle Paul's gospel, which is the one true gospel that I am the gospel, I am the bread of life. And I think even though we're not pharisees and tax collectors and sinners nowadays so much, it still breaks down along those same lines. People out there think it's about what I have to do and the people that are really down, I think about that old saying about hitting bottom before you can get hitting the people that have, have been broken down by life. You know, there was always this kind of a, the religious people in church would always, always kind of say, Oh, you know, a lot of people that come to Christ and a lot of atheists as well, Oh, it's all losers, you know, it's, it's Christianity, it's for losers. That's the reason they come cuz they have nothing left. Have you heard that before? Either one of
Tim 00:21:30 You. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And those are the people who need Him the most.
Mark 00:21:33 Yeah. And that's what they don't understand. They've come to the end of their own work, my ability to do, to be good, to take care of myself. And that's a good place to be. Yeah. You know, and that's why I think that a lot of the people in scripture that flocked to him were those people where the people that had all together, the religious, all dressed up in their big robes and, you know, praying out loud and seated at the seat of honor, they couldn't, they, they didn't have the openness to humble themselves to some extent let go of their own abilities, their own flesh, the Apostle Paul would call it.
Ajai 00:22:14 So yeah. In fact, you know, that's one of the biggest tumbling blocks, you know, in most of the, you know, within the Christians and others they put is, you know, they, they actually place one condition of our other and keeping people from freely coming and eating of him and receiving him. You know, as you know, like, you know, one of the popular teachings is, if you sin you will lose fellowship with God. So that applies here as well. Right. You know, they're preventing, you know, they say, you know, if you, if you sin, you cannot take part of Lord Jesus Christ and eat from him. And in fact, that also, directly applies during communion as well. Many a time they say that, you know, if you're sin in your life, you cannot partake in the holy communion. But what they're doing is by placing these conditions, you know, the very thing that can help people and give them life, they're keeping them from that very thing by placing all these conditions. So I think one of the biggest things, you know, if you notice is in many of the preachings, they may crush conditional, even if it's a small condition, like, you know, hey, you know, stop doing their, stop doing that. But still, you know, if you place a condition they can never partake off a lodge crush because they can never fulfill those conditions. I think back to the point,
Tim 00:23:33 Well that's the beauty of grace Ajay, is we're not sinners anymore. We've been cleaned, we've been forgiven, past, present, and future. So we can't, we have no sin in our, there's no record to, to keep. Yeah. Cause there's no sin. So we can freely have fellowship with God and have part communion and all of that. That's, that's why this, this message is so radical and so wonderful.
Ajai 00:23:57 Yep. Yep. In fact, Roman chapter five says verse one, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. So what it is saying is know because we are justified by faith. There's nothing between us and God. Now we have access and uninterrupted access by faith into this grace. Again, when you say into this grace, what is, what are we talking about? We are talking about the largest Christ himself, right. Of his fullness. We have received grace in place of grace. So what we do now is receiving grace upon grace, which is basically Christ himself, Right. Christ's life upon Christ's life. Every day we receive and we live by that life in us.
Tim 00:24:50 So spiritually we've been restored through our acceptance of Jesus, we've been restored spiritually to the condition that Adam and Eve had relationally with God.
Ajai 00:25:01 Yeah.
Mark 00:25:02 This chapter is really Christ preaching the gospel, which is himself. It starts out with him doing this miraculous feeding of the 5,000, walking on the water, and then, telling them that the work of God is to believe in him. And then that's saying he's the Bret of life and he was aware that they were starting to grumble. And he says, Does this offend you? Let me ask you guys this. Does the gospel offend people? Oh yeah. Does grace offend people? And he said it right here from the beginning. He said, Then what if you see the son of man ascend to where he was before? And listen to these words, the spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. And this totally reminds me of the Apostle Paul in Galatians three, I believe it is where he says, you know, who is bewitched you, having started by the Spirit? Are you now trying to finish by the flesh? And Jesus is saying here, the spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. What we do are abilities that counts for nothing. It's the spirit of God in us. And then he says, the words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit in life. So beautiful.
Tim 00:26:20 Amen.
Ajai 00:26:20 Yeah. In fact, you know, I was going to point to that verse. So, Mark is, you know, sometimes you know here the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, you know, you have to eat off me and you have to drink my blood. But obviously know as believers we never really literally ate off his body and not drink off his bed in, blood. And you know, that's where, you know, they got offended and Lord Jesus Christ clarifies that. Right? So the flesh prophets nothing, you know, it is a spirit that gives life. And the words that I speak to you are the spirit and they are life. So the way we actually eat and drink of our Lord Jesus Christ is by receiving his words. You know, the words of His grace and the words of the Finn work of Lord Christ. You know, when we, when we receive the Finn work, right? What he did on the cross, and when we believe it, you know, we are actually eating and drinking from him. And of course there are other means also like communion, right? That is also a, a way we exercise faith. You know, we are not saying that the bread becomes literally the body, but what we are saying is we are using that as a means to exercise our faith to again, you know, receive Lord Jesus Christ. So, so our life is a life of receiving Christ himself and living by him every day.
Mark 00:27:40 This, this, this teaching here we're speaking on here, as I mentioned, Jesus finished it by saying, does this offend you? And that totally reminds me of one of the subjects in our debunking Christian myth series where legalistic people living according to their flesh, trying to learn their own, earn their own righteousness, keeping the rules, they are offended by this, by the grace of Jesus. Now, one of the weapons they use against people that are relying solely on Christ is that the cross is meant to be an offense. And we talked about this at length from the scripture where the apostle apostle Paul teaches on this, and Paul says, Actually, you know what? They are right? The cross is meant to be an offense, but surprise, surprise, the reason and the, and the way it's an offense is 180 degrees opposite. Does that ring a bell to either one of you guys? I do remember a episode where that was discussed. Now, so what, So what? The cross is not meant to offend the sinner, the person who is, has nothing of their own and their own ability and power to do good. It's meant to offend the religious because it's, that's why we're not meant to scream at people and point out their sin because that's the law's job. The cross is grace. And that doesn't offend them, that draws them and attracts them to the beauty of the cross, to the love and grace of God that are perfectly displayed on what Christ did there. but it definitely offends the religious, as you can see here, as he's teaching about himself being the gospel. And to believe in me, this was offending them and many left. So just a backup that the offense of the cross is not an offense to the unbeliever because you're telling them they're sinners. The offense of the cross is meant to offend people that are trying to do it under their own power, under their own goodness and righteousness. It's awesome the way God just weaves a tapestry throughout scripture supporting all the important stuff, especially,
Tim 00:29:54 Amen. Well, I know that we had, there are seven I ams and I thought, you know, I think we were trying to do one or more, and I'm looking at the clock thinking to myself, I don't think we're gonna make it to add another one. So this might be a slightly shorter episode, but I still want to give you guys the ability to do any wrap up that you might wanna do. So AJAI, why don't I let you give a summation for this episode?
Ajai 00:30:20 Yeah, I think the summation is very simple. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ, he himself is our salvation, and he himself is our eternal life. And by actually receiving Christ and believing on him, people are saved. And it is not a one time thing during salvation. You know, when we are first to believe in our largest Christ, we receive him as our bread of life. But after that, you know, he becomes our daily bread every day through faith, through receiving his word, and through prayer, we receive Christ himself and live by him. And, and, and the beautiful thing is, you know, we have access to Christ freely. We don't have to do anything. We simply receive him every day by faith and live by Him.
Tim 00:31:03 Yep. Excellent, Excellent. And I would say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna step in for Mark, because Mark just had to step out. And I'm gonna say that what Jesus is saying by don't worry about what your, you know, flesh is. Don't worry about your food, don't worry about anything. Just keep your focus on me. He's really not saying that, you know, he expects you to starve and die and not provide for yourself. What he is saying is your life is a maybe a hundred years, Your eternal life, your spiritual life is forever. Keep in mind what's important. Keep your eyes on him, keep your focus on him, keep your belief on him. And you know when, when you chuck off this mortal coil, you will join him in heaven for eternity. So with that, I'm gonna thank everybody for listening and say we'll talk to you the next time.
Tim 00:32:03 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel@yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question or comment on our listener line 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.
