WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 It's reckoned that during the course of a lifetime, the average person can expect to 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.820 eat something in the region of 87,000 slices of bread. 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:17.679 Now of course that statistic will vary depending on how long you live and I guess how much 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:23.660 you like sandwiches, but putting those variables to one side, it's a lot of bread. 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:26.179 Now here's another weird statistic for you. 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:30.399 Apparently we can expect to spend roughly four and a half years of our time on earth 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:32.219 eating. 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:35.740 Imagine if you could do all of that eating in one go. 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:39.280 Think of all the time you'd save to do other stuff. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:47.140 Just to put it in context, when we stack up our daily activities across an average lifetime, 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:49.579 it starts to get pretty shocking. 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:57.339 Apparently we spend 26 years of our lives sleeping and a further seven years trying to get to 00:00:57.339 --> 00:00:59.219 sleep. 00:00:59.219 --> 00:01:06.759 The point I want to make today, and I believe it's as important as it is basic, is this. 00:01:06.759 --> 00:01:11.359 Eating along with a whole load of other stuff like resting, washing, breathing, these are 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:16.280 all things that need to be kept up continually. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:21.359 You can't just swallow 87,000 slices of bread and never eat again in the same way that you 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:28.099 can't draw one massive breath and never worry about having to breathe again. 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:35.980 So when Jesus said, I am the bread of life, he was making a statement about how we need him 00:01:35.980 --> 00:01:39.219 in an ongoing way. 00:01:39.219 --> 00:01:42.719 I think there's a danger of forgetting that. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:47.859 In Christian faith, we like to emphasise the once for all nature of what Christ has done 00:01:47.859 --> 00:01:50.200 for us on the cross. 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:52.659 Now it's important that we do emphasise that. 00:01:52.659 --> 00:01:56.740 After all, Christ has died for us and has been raised. 00:01:56.740 --> 00:01:59.240 The victory is won. 00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:04.740 But let's not allow that truth to mask another equally important truth. 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:12.620 Namely, the truth that we need the continuing presence of Christ in our lives each and every 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:14.099 day. 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:18.180 Just like eating, drinking and breathing. 00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:23.500 In John chapter six, Jesus makes this quite clear when he refers back to hundreds of years 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:29.699 earlier to the way the people of Israel, having been set free from slavery in Egypt, were 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:35.659 sustained for 40 years by a type of bread called manna. 00:02:35.659 --> 00:02:42.659 Throughout that period, the Israelites had learned to depend on God on a daily basis, gathering 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:49.280 and eating what they needed each day in faith that God would provide and continue to provide 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:54.060 again the next day and the next and the next and so on. 00:02:54.060 --> 00:03:00.780 Being to trust and to be sustained by God on a daily basis is vital to being a disciple 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:01.780 of Jesus. 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:06.379 There are loads of reasons for this, but here's two. 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:12.340 First, seeing Jesus as our daily bread is all about our spiritual hunger being met in 00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:16.420 him and by him in our everyday experience. 00:03:16.419 --> 00:03:23.299 And that's important because our world is as spiritually hungry as it ever was. 00:03:23.299 --> 00:03:30.379 Someone called Hans worked his way up from being a miner to owning a number of mines. 00:03:30.379 --> 00:03:36.139 His eldest son, Martin, was very bright and he went to university at the age of 17. 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:43.779 A respectable career as a lawyer lay ahead of him, but suddenly, to his father's dismay, 00:03:43.779 --> 00:03:50.019 he cancelled his registration for the law course and became a monk and then a priest. 00:03:50.019 --> 00:03:53.019 He was hungry for the spiritual. 00:03:53.019 --> 00:03:55.219 Martin wanted to live a righteous life. 00:03:55.219 --> 00:04:01.739 He fasted for days and spent sleepless nights in prayer, but he was still plagued by his own 00:04:01.739 --> 00:04:05.419 unrighteousness before a righteous God. 00:04:05.419 --> 00:04:13.979 No matter how hard he tried, his spiritual hunger only deepened and he could not be satisfied. 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:20.479 Eventually around the age of 30, he was studying Romans chapter 1 verse 17, which says in the 00:04:20.479 --> 00:04:25.079 gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:27.800 The penny dropped. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.579 Later on, he wrote this. 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:31.579 He wrote, 00:04:31.579 --> 00:05:01.579 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:07.139 But since he was born in history, he became one of the pivotal figures of Western civilisation, 00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:14.099 the founder of the Reformation, the seedbed for social, economic and political thought. 00:05:14.099 --> 00:05:19.099 His name, of course, was Martin Luther. 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:25.540 Our culture may have shifted radically over the last five centuries, but certain truths never change. 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:30.020 And basic human spiritual hunger is one of them. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.500 That hunger can only be met when we experience what it is to be placed in a right relationship with God. 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:39.280 And that's a gift. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.439 But that's not just a one-off thing that happens at the point when someone becomes a Christian. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:52.199 If we think of it like that, then we'll miss something that's at the heart of the Christian life. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:59.819 Namely, that our relationship with God is a gift to be received on a daily basis. 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:01.779 It's our daily sustenance. 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:06.500 The life in all fullness to which Jesus referred depends on it. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:15.139 Now, I said I'd share two particular reasons why it's important to understand Jesus as our daily bread. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:16.839 The second one is this. 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:26.879 We need to learn the importance of being fed by God, depending on God and trusting in God on a day-by-day basis. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.180 Now, I know that's a lot easier to say than it is to do. 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:37.800 But therein lies a fundamental part of the challenge of growing as a Christian disciple. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:47.560 To trust that God will continue to meet our needs as they arise in the future that we can't yet see, but which God can see. 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:56.339 Corrie Temboon and her sister Betsy were middle-aged Christian women in Holland when the Second World War erupted. 00:06:57.420 --> 00:07:01.300 They resolved to conceal fleeing Jews from the Nazis. 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:03.500 They rescued many. 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:08.800 But they were eventually arrested and taken to Ravensbrook concentration camp. 00:07:09.960 --> 00:07:11.040 Betsy died there. 00:07:12.259 --> 00:07:18.500 Corrie miraculously survived to bear witness to the way in which God can save, heal and forgive. 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:26.139 When asked how to prepare for persecution, she used to tell this story about her childhood. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:27.259 She said, 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:30.899 When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:37.800 Daddy, I'm afraid that I would never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:43.819 Tell me, said father, when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, 00:07:44.659 --> 00:07:47.680 when do I give you the money for the ticket? 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:49.759 Three weeks before? 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:55.759 No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:58.899 That is right, my father said. 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:01.860 And so it is with God's strength. 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:08.180 Our father in heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:13.000 He will supply all you need just in time. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:18.000 Now, we may not all literally face martyrdom, 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:25.740 but we do all face the challenge of trusting in God to provide in the future that we can't yet see. 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:30.439 We need to learn to live day by day. 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:35.559 Jesus said, I am the bread of life. 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:37.419 That's quite a bold statement. 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:44.700 There's something that perhaps that resonates in us when the people in John chapter six 00:08:44.700 --> 00:08:47.500 take a bit of persuading as they say to Jesus, 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:54.040 what miraculous sign will you give us that we may see and believe you? 00:08:55.780 --> 00:09:00.020 And yet when they said this to him, according to the narrative of John's gospel, 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:06.320 Jesus had just fed 5000 people before walking on water. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:11.800 I can't help but wondering why Jesus didn't just turn around and say to them, 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:12.940 oh, I'm sorry. 00:09:13.420 --> 00:09:16.220 Would it help if I juggled at the same time or something? 00:09:16.220 --> 00:09:24.139 But in fact, he said simply, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:28.139 I think it's easy for us to say to ourselves, 00:09:28.419 --> 00:09:34.240 if only I experienced something really spectacular, like a miraculous healing or something, 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.159 then that would be enough to convince me. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:44.079 But let's be honest, whatever we see or experience or witness firsthand, 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:47.959 it's always possible to find a reason not to trust in Jesus. 00:09:48.819 --> 00:09:53.079 Even those who witnessed his miracles firsthand resisted him. 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:55.839 But not everyone did. 00:09:56.839 --> 00:10:00.659 There were those who witnessed these things who got what Jesus was saying 00:10:00.659 --> 00:10:04.899 because they were able to accept what he was offering them. 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:11.079 You see, faith is not something that can ever be proved by a miracle. 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:20.279 That's because faith, Christian faith, is a relationship that can only be experienced by encountering it, 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:24.059 by taking a few risks and daring to trust. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:31.240 If we really want to know what it's like to be sustained by the bread that Jesus is talking about, 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:40.000 we've just got to try it and go on trying it and go on trying it and then go on trying it. 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:45.360 Even when we don't feel like we've got much of an appetite, 00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:50.159 if we're serious about knowing God and growing closer to him, 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.899 we need to go on being fed. 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:57.259 Every day. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:10:57.320 Every day.