Children’s Sermon

John 6:24-35

Bread of Heaven

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John 6:24-35

Bread of Heaven

By Dell Smith Klein

One day while helping their parents organize the kitchen pantry, Kelly saw bread making items. She remembered a story from the Holy Bible about food from heaven. The people of God were walking in the wilderness and every day God sent fresh manna to eat. The people would gather the manna and eat it that day. The next day there would be more fresh manna. (Described in Exodus 16).

As the twins worked, they remembered another story from the Holy Bible about Jesus feeding five thousand people with two fish, and a little bit of bread.

In that story Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (v. 35).

When Jesus made the statement about the bread of life, here is what was happening: Many people had been at a gathering where Jesus taught, and then he miraculously fed 5,000 people with two fish and five barley loaves. Afterwards, Jesus and his disciples got into a boat and went across the lake. Before long many of the people who had been fed arrived. The people tried to flatter Jesus, talking about his miracle. They didn’t really want to hear Jesus teach, they wanted to learn how Jesus fed all those people with such a small amount of food. They thought if they could learn how, they wouldn’t have to work or buy food ever again.

Jesus knew their hearts, so he said, “…you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves” (v. 26).

Bread was very important to the people of Jesus’ day. They had other foods, like figs and melons, cheese, vegetables and meat, but they ate bread with every meal. It was their most important food. Without bread, the people would have starved to death. So, Jesus said, “…it wasn’t Moses who gave you bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven” (v. 32).

Jesus wanted the people to know that he was talking about the importance of taking in good food for our soul as well as our body. We need the nourishment that we receive from reading and learning the important things from the Holy Bible. Jesus wanted the people to know that he was the bread of heaven.

PRAYER:

We thank you, God, for our food. We don’t collect manna like the people of Israel did in the wilderness. We have Jesus, who is more important than anything we receive in our lives. Thank you for Jesus, the true bread of heaven. Amen.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan