Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

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Daily Devotion August 8th

John 10:1-18

NIV (v11) – ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

ESV (v11) – ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

In today’s Scripture we come to the fourth of the ‘I am’ statements, ‘I am the good shepherd.’ It is only a few weeks ago that I highlighted the Scriptures that show us that Jesus is the ‘good, chief and great’ shepherd in our Sunday video.

Good as in our text for today.

Great in Hebrews 13:20

Chief in 1 Peter 5:4

Today we will consider the second part of the text ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

This is what Jesus came to do, he was born to die, he was born to become the sacrifice for the sins of the world, he was born to be both the shepherd and the lamb. As a result of his sacrifice, through him becoming the Passover Lamb, we can become a part of his flock, in the safety of his fold and know him as our Shepherd.

Back in our earlier devotions from John’s gospel we recalled what John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus coming toward him, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’, (John 1:29) But before he could take the sin away he had to go to Calvary, which was God’s appointed place for the sacrificial lamb to be slain. In 1 John 4:10 we read ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin.’

Lets remind ourselves that God loved us and so he sent his Son to be our sacrificial Lamb so that as a result of our coming to believe in him, we will have life which is abundant (John 10:10) and eternal (John 10:27) and at the same time we will come to know the Lamb as the Lord our Shepherd.

This is all good news, but there is further good news in this same chapter that reminds us that the one who came to be the sacrificial Lamb so that we can come to know him as our Shepherd has power over death, verse 17-18 says, ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it upon again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from  my Father.’

He went to the cross, knowing that he was going to suffer, he knew the awfulness beforehand of everything that was going to happen, the scourging, the beating, the taunting, the thorns, the nails, the taking upon himself our sin and the punishment he would bear on our behalf for it, but he was willing, first because he loved us, second because he wanted to redeem us, and we could give a number of other reasons but my third will be because he knew that in laying down his life he had the power to take it up again, and fourthly because he had the power to lay down his life and to take it up again, he would have the power to grant eternal life to all who would believe and fifthly, he knew he was going to have a sheep-fold full of sheep, taken from among the nations and tribes of the world, men and women who will be washed in the his blood, the blood of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 5) The Hebrew writer reminds us in Hebrews 12:2 ‘. . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross . . .’

Today as we contemplate what Christ has done for us, give thanks from a grateful heart, and should it happen to be that you are reading this and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Shepherd, then come to know him, as your Saviour, as your Shepherd. Come to the one who gave his life to redeem you, to reconcile you back to God, come into the safety of his sheepfold.

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Daily Devotion August 7th

FRIDAY 7th

John 10:1-18

NIV (v7) ‘Therefore Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.’

ESV (v7) ‘So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.’

We have our third ‘I am’ statement in this portion of Scripture today, plus the fourth in v11 which we will consider tomorrow.

Here Jesus is identifying himself as the door (ESV) or gate (NIV) in the context of this chapter he is not only the Shepherd of the sheep, but also the gate or door or entrance into the sheepfold.

We could bring a number of different lessons from these verses, but for today I want to link it to what Jesus says later in John 14:6 when he says that he is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.’ He is the only door or gate or entrance into heaven. There is no other way, there is no other door, there is no other gate, there is no other entrance.

I have always been a fan of cars, and from an early age, probably from about age eleven I would go every year to the Motor Show that was held in Earls Court, London and then latterly at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, for Earls Court my grandfather would take my older brother and myself by coach from Hereford. Once it had moved to the NEC, I would go by myself. One year, I decided to let the train take the strain, and arrived at the exhibition centre, not sure of the way to get in and I had a bit of difficulty finding the entrance. Eventually, I found a doorway that took me down some stairs and through a corridor. I was then faced with another door. I opened the door and walked through it and there I was in the main exhibition hall! I thought to myself, how as that happened, I have got in without paying, without going through any ticket entrance, I was in for free. I decided to speak to a security guy, and said to him what had happened, explaining that somehow I had stumbled upon a way to get in without paying, he replied don’t worry about it, enjoy your day!

There are many who are trying to get into heaven their own way, through works or personal merit, through religion, through religious fervour and practise, but unlike my stumbling upon an entrance into the show, they will never be able to stumble into heaven, there are no backdoors, no holes in the fence, no short cuts, there is only one way and it through the Lord Jesus Christ, it is by the way of the cross. There is some good news though, and just as I got into the show for free, so also the cost has been paid for our entrance into heaven, the one who said he was the door has also paid the price, by laying his life down for the sheep.

The hymn writer reminds us that the one who is the gate was also the one who unlocks the gate! ‘There was no other good enough, to pay the price of sin, he only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.

Have you come to Jesus, have you come through him, to receive all the benefits that come from knowing him as Saviour and Lord? Remember he is the only way into heaven.

We return to the same chapter again tomorrow.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion August 6th

THURSDAY 6th

John 9

NIV (v25) – John 9:25 ‘He replied, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!’’

ESV (v25) – John 9:25 ‘He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’’

At first glance, it seems strange to us who read this story to think of this man saying that he did not know if the man who had given him his sight was a sinner or not. We have hindsight, prior to this the man had no sight! He may have heard Jesus on occasions before this, he may have heard about Jesus, but he had never physically seen him with his own eyes. But this day, something incredible would happen to him, he would not only hear this man, he would see him, believe him and receive him.

It is another of those chapters where an incredible miracle caused the Pharisees and the gainsayers to debate, discuss and dispute over Jesus. They call the healed mans parents in for questioning, then the healed man himself, suggesting that to him that the healing had been done by a sinner, to which the man replies, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not I do not know’ he was uncertain about who Jesus was, but the facts were very clear, ‘One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ It is almost as if the blind man was so overjoyed about receiving his sight, it did not really matter who had done the miracle!

The story continues that because the man had a measure of faith and understanding he comes to the conclusion that the man who had given him his sight must be from heaven, and he was then cast out of the Synagogue, for anyone who agreed that Jesus was the Christ would be thrown out (v22)

It is only after this that he encounters Jesus again, and he comes to believing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (verses 35-38).

We have already considered light versus darkness in previous devotions, this story relates toward spiritual blindness, the testimony of this man has also become our testimony as we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the hymn writer, John Newton also puts it in the song ‘Amazing grace’ I once was lost but now am found, was blind but know I see.’

The people around us are not only walking in darkness, they are also walking as blind men and women, spiritually blind, they may have heard about Jesus, but they have not yet seen him, they have not yet encountered him. There is an old hymn we used to sing, ‘Jesus is passing this way, this way, today, Jesus is passing this way, is passing this way today’. And I am glad of the day when he passed the place where I was sat in my spiritual blindness, and he stopped and opened my eyes to the wonder of who he is and of his amazing grace, and thank God he is still passing this way, by his Spirit he is still at work reaching out to touch spiritually blind eyes to see him for who he really is, and to unblock spiritually deaf ears to hear him calling and to unstop spiritually dumb mouths to sing forth the praises of him who has brought them out of darkness into his light and to bring strength to the spiritually lame to enable them to dance with joy unspeakable and full of glory! He is passing through our communities, he is passing through our towns, Gateshead, Newcastle and the surrounding district, may we rejoice to see and hear of many yet coming to the place of meeting with him, and having their lives transformed by his touch, by his power and with his grace.

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Daily Devotion August 5th

WEDNESDAY 5th

John 8:31-59

NIV (vv31-32) – ‘To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

ESV (vv31-32) – ‘So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

We are told that we are living in a free world, and yet for the believer the freedoms that we have so long enjoyed are slowly being curtailed by those who are in civic and political authority and it isn’t always plainly obvious, but it is introduced through various means such as political correctness, where the rights of every individual are claimed to be upheld . . . unless you abide by the truth which is not only Jesus himself but also his words, including the Word of God, allowing it to governing your life with godly principles, upright morality and righteousness, then those who promote tolerance are reluctant to show tolerance toward you.

But the reality is that even when the world seeks to bind or gag the believer, and despise righteousness, we are the ones who are truly living in real freedom, for we have been set free from the snare of sin and the control of Satan and as we discovered yesterday we have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light, a kingdom where we come under the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and his name is Jesus, and there is no greater authority and rule than his, true freedom comes through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Lordship, his rule in our lives and linked to this is our continuing to know or to live in freedom by living according to his word or his teaching.

There are many around the world today who are imprisoned because of their faith, or restricted in their celebration of and living out their faith because of the hostility toward Christianity in a Communist regime, or nations under the control of Islam etc. and yet in their imprisonment they the persecuted believers are living in true freedom because of the eternal hope that has been set within them. We in the western world need to be earnestly praying for our brothers and sisters who are found in such hostile environments and at the same time pray that the erosion of our freedom to celebrate our faith will not continue, but rather be turned around for the glory of God.

Linked in with this, over the last few days there has been much debate over the restrictions that have been put in place, forbidding gatherings which has and still affects the gathering of Churches. There are those who are to the one side seeing it as a political attempt to gag the Church and yet fail to realise or want to overlook that at the same time other forms of mass gatherings are forbidden, and to the other side those who see it has a necessary means for the Church to play its part in the efforts to minimise the spread of the virus. We need to be careful how we react and allow the virus pandemic to eventually reach a level where we can safely open and then ensure that any other means of Government interference or enforcement is not that which would be seen as a definite effort to silence the Christian witness. We are living in unprecedented times, but we can rest knowing who we are in Christ, living in his freedom and abiding by his Word, which is truth.

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Daily Devotion August 4th

TUESDAY 4th

John 8:12-30

NIV (v12) – ‘When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

ESV (v12) – ‘Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

We come today to the second ‘I am’ statement of Jesus. (see devotion July 31st) where Jesus says that ‘I am the light of the world.’

Back at the beginning of the gospel, as we are introduced to Jesus as the Word, we are told ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.’(1:4-5) It continues in verse 9 to say ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world . . .’ In our text today, Jesus identifies himself as being the light that was coming, now, it had come and he as that light was declaring ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

This is an astounding declaration to make, for in making it, Jesus was stating that he was the ‘light of the world’, he was born in Bethlehem, born as a Jew, lived his entire life in Israel, less the period of time as a refugee in Egypt after his birth, and yet he was declaring himself as the ‘light of the world’, and as the light if we follow him, we will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. This corresponds with John’s statement in 1:4, ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ This means that Jesus is life and light and that in our believing him, we are receiving Jesus himself, his life and his light. In John 14 we learn that he is ‘the life’ and thank God he came into this world not just to Israel to impart his life into all who would believe, eternal and abundant life.

Life and light – we know that for anything to grow, to have life, light is essential, we know all about photosynthesis, where the light of the sun brings the process for life to happen, in the same way for us to have life we need the light of the Son, and as his light comes into our lives we have the abundant eternal life he grants.

I think in a general sense today we take light for granted, we live in the era of electricity and we can have all forms of light and we can actually overdo it – I don’t even want to remember how many times with our children growing up we have had to remind them to switch the light off, or comment that the house is  more like Blackpool illuminations with all the lights left on (my parents had the same problem too) but when it comes to the one who himself is the light, we can never over do it, we need him to shine in and though our lives, we need him to come and to dispel the darkness which is so widespread in our generation, we need him as the light to lead us and to guide us as we navigate through this world, as strangers and pilgrims bound for an heavenly kingdom.

Over the last month or so, there has been a comet called Neowise visible in the Northern Hemisphere, one of the complaints that has been sounded is that owing to the light pollution, it has been difficult to see the comet, and the best opportunity is to go out into the countryside away from the light pollution to get a better view. The reverse is the state of the world today, too much dark pollution and we as believers and collectively as the Church need to shine in the  midst of this darkness as representatives of the one who is the true light.

Back in the 1980’s Elaine and I were staying with one of her cousins in Mansfield, he was a pit manager and it was during the time of the long strikes. As a manager he had to go down into the pit and through the coal face every day to inspect it, to ensure its safety for when the miners returned to work. He invited me to go with him, this of course was a new experience for a farmer’s son, and I have to be honest I really didn’t know what to expect, but the deeper we went and then the further we crawled through the cutting face I began to understand what true darkness was really like and  how important the little light we had was. Christian friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, Church, those of us who have come out of the darkness and into the light, let us never forget how truly dark the kingdom of darkness really is, it is under the control of the prince of darkness, and my how this world needs the light. We really are living in dark days where the principalities and powers would love to snuff out the light of the Christian gospel, we need to be courageous and willing to let our light, as Christ who is the light shines through us, shine before men so that they will glorify God. (Matthew 5:14-16)

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Daily Devotion August 3rd

MONDAY 3rd

John 7

NIV (vv37-38) – ‘On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’

ESV (vv37-38) – ‘On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

One of the features of the British summer is the plethora of music festivals that take place around the country, venues which become mass gatherings for music lovers, obviously Covid-19 has prevented them from taking place this year, and for the record, no, I have no personal interest in ever attending one! But, can you imagine one of these festivals taking place, and toward the end, someone stands up and cries out with a loud voice ‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ I am sure there would be a fair few open-mouthed folk gawping and thinking ‘what on earth is he on about’, there would be those who would perhaps mock or laugh. Now I know that the situation in John’s gospel, was different, it was a religious festival, not a music festival, but the crowd in that time had the same need as the crowds who fill the festivals in the UK, many of them would have gawped open-mouthed, some would have mocked and laughed, but the festival goers then and also today, like us have the same need of the Lord Jesus Christ, they like us need to know what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ so that from out of our inner most being, rivers of living water will flow.

After Jesus had stood up and cried out, it caused division, see this in verses 40-52 and the same response happens today as we declare Jesus, who he is and what he has said about himself and all that he offers to those who believe, but we must never allow the risk of opposition to shut us up and prevent us from declaring the good news concerning Jesus. Just as Jesus stood up in the festival, we need man and women who are willing to stand up in this crowded world, a world crowded with opinion, crowded with prejudice, crowded with useless gods, crowded with secularism and plurality to declare the good news of the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact that (Covid-19 aside) the festivals are crowded, that the shopping malls are crowded, that the pleasure and sporting facilities of this world are crowded (more often on a Sunday, when Churches are struggling to be filled) etc. indicates that people are hungering and thirsting, they are seeking ways and means of getting satisfaction, but looking in the wrong place. There is nothing wrong with a (decent) festival, shopping mall, pleasure, or sporting facility, but when they become the means through which people try to get lasting satisfaction and to meet the inner longings of the heart then they become a problem, for they will keep men and women from coming to the only one who can satisfy the inner eternal longing of the heart.

May God help us who know Jesus and who are the representatives for Jesus today to become bold and courageous to stand up in the crowd and to declare the good news of the gospel.

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Daily Devotion August 2nd

SUNDAY 2nd

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’ John 7:37-39

We continue again today with the subject of bread and take todays thought from the prayer our Lord taught his disciples to pray. Todays devotion is a deviation away from John’s gospel and the purpose for it will be at the end.

Luke 11:1-4 ‘Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread,  and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’

‘Give us each day our daily bread.’

Last Friday in our devotion we saw that Jesus described himself as ‘the bread of life’, here in this prayer which he taught his disciples to pray, he encourages them to ask the heavenly Father for daily bread. As the bread of life, Jesus satisfies our spiritual need, but our heavenly Father is also the one who satisfies our physical need or our daily requirement for nourishment for the physical.

In what we call his ‘sermon on the mount’ in Matthews gospel, Jesus made it very clear that not only are our spiritual need met through the good news of the gospel, but our God also provides for us in the natural. He has placed the seasons into place, springtime and harvest, the rains that soak into the ground and the sunshine to enable the planted seed to grow, for the earth to produce our daily bread. In the sermon, Jesus tell the listeners and it applies to us as well today ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?’ (Matthew 6:25-26)

There is so such going on in the world today that could cause us to be anxious, as we see the ongoing threat of the Covid-19 virus and the complication arising from it in regard to the worlds economy affecting jobs and in turn peoples financial security. We need to remind ourselves that our security is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and he knows what we need, and as we remain constant in our walk with him, he will provide our daily bread. (As I am typing this devotion I am listening to a pre-recorded service and the song being played is ‘You’re a good, good Father’) and he is our Father, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread . . .’ He is faithful. Faithful forever you will be, all your promises are yes and amen.

The purpose of this devotion is twofold, to firstly remind us of the faithfulness of our heavenly father in his provision toward us the children of men and secondly, as we see the combine harvesters beginning to roll out into the fields to harvest the grain, let us give thanks from grateful hearts for the daily provision we have.

Perhaps in the western world we too often take so much for granted, we need to continually come back to the Creator and the Sustainer with thankful hearts. Remember the story in Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus healed ten lepers, yet only one returned to give thanks. As we continually give thanks for our great salvation, so we also need to continually give thanks for his daily provision, give thanks for the ‘bread of life’ and for the ‘daily bread’.

‘Great is thy faithfulness,

great is thy faithfulness;

morning by morning new mercies I see;

all I have needed thy hand hath provided –

great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

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Daily Devotion August 1st

SATURDAY 1st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’

As we continue from yesterday’s devotion, where Jesus had said that he was the bread of life, I will continue today and tomorrow with the subject of bread as seen in the Scripture, looking at two separate verses, for today:

Luke 4:1-1-4 ‘And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.  The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.’

In the first Scripture we are taken to the account where Jesus is in the wilderness and being tempted by the devil. There are three temptations,

  1. To turn a stone to bread
  2. To worship the devil
  3. To throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple

The first was to do with hunger as we are told that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, and during that time he had ate nothing. Understandably, he was hungry, and the devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’  This was a quote from the OT in Deuteronomy 8:3 ‘And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.’

A couple of thoughts here, the devil says ‘If you are . . .’ it always makes me smile, for the devil knew without any shadow of doubt who Jesus was and that he really was the Son of God, what he was trying to do was to weasel into what he thought would be a weak point on Jesus behalf (his hunger) and as a result get Jesus to take the devils advice and put it into action, making the stone into bread. If Jesus had done this, it would have been a landmark victory for the devil and would have led to the failure of the plan of salvation. (As would have been the yielding to the other two temptations)

The devil is as we are reminded in Scripture going about like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour. (1Peter 5:8 ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.’) We could put it this way, he is prowling around or sniffing around to see if he can find our weak points, our vulnerabilities and he would love to try to trick us into conceding to any temptation he would bring our way to try to snare us, trap us and to trip us up.

Jesus responded to the devil with a Scripture, and for us as well, we need to realise that among many other things Scripture is a tool or a weapon we need to take up and use as a defence and protection against the wiles of the devil. In Ephesians 6, the Word of God is pictured as the sword, ‘. . . and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.’ I do not know about you, but I think the devil could do with a few plunges of this amazing sword! May God help each of us, however long we may have been a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, to never give into the wiles of the devil, but to be determined in our hearts to wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Daily Devotion July 31st

FRIDAY 31st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’

We come today to the first narrative in John’s gospel to contain one of what we call the ‘I Am’ statements of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are seven of them altogether:

John 6:35 ‘I am the bread of life.’

John 8:12 ‘ I am the light of the world.’

John 10:7-9  ‘I am the door.’

John 10:10 ‘I am the good Shepherd.’

John 11:25 ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’

John 14:6 ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’

John 15:1 ‘I am the true vine.’

In our Scripture for today, Jesus calls himself or refers to himself as the bread of life or living bread seven times. Verses 32, 33, 35, 41, 48, 51 and 58.

The crowds that had enjoyed the meal of loaves and fishes had decided to look for Jesus again the next day, and who could blame them if there was the possibility of another free meal! I would have been there for sure if it had been something else instead of fish! But Jesus discerned that their motives for coming to him again were not genuine, it was only for the free meal and not because of who he really was. V27 ‘Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves . . .’  

It is out of the continuing dialogue that Jesus had with the crowd that we learn that he is the bread of life. They challenged Jesus about the time when Moses had fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with the manna which they described as bread from heaven, because it appeared on the ground every morning. (Exodus 16) Jesus replies by saying that it wasn’t Moses that had provided the bread, but rather his (that is Jesus’) Father and he then incorporates the statement to take on a present reality for them by saying ‘ . . .my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is HE who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ In the wilderness the bread, manna was a substance they could collect and eat, but here the bread was not a substance that they could collect and eat, but was in fact a person (he), who was the ‘Word who had become flesh’ whom if we believe in will grant eternal life.

The manna or bread in the wilderness only sustained life for a period, they had to collect a fresh supply every day and eat to survive, but the true bread, the living bread gives eternal life! We come by faith and partake of him, and as we eat and drink, we receive the life he offers. It is in the same chapter that Jesus speaks of eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood to have eternal life (John 6:53-58) Jesus isn’t saying that we have to literally eat of his flesh and literally drink of his blood, we know that this is not possible, he is using language that speaks or signifies of us partaking of him by faith, it is our accepting him, or believing that he the bread of life, as being the one who God has sent to grant eternal life, it is a figure of speech to describe that as by faith we believe, we are partaking of the bread of life and are being saved.

I do not eat a lot of bread, I have mentioned in a previous devotion that I like going to ‘Subway’ which uses a bread roll for the sandwich, I could go days without eating bread. I went to Denmark a few years ago for a conference, and in the morning as you woke up there would be this beautiful smell filling the air, and as I made my way the first time for breakfast, the smell was incredible, it was Danish bread and I couldn’t eat enough of it, it is most definitely the best bread I have ever eaten, well, almost! For I am glad that I have come to receive of the ‘bread of life’ he is the best bread ever!

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 30th

THURSDAY 30th

John 6:16-21

NIV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; don’t be afraid.’

ESV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; do not be afraid.’

This is a short story, but it is another evidence of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, this time demonstrated with his power over a storm.

There is another account of Jesus stilling a storm when he was in the boat with the disciples found in Luke 8:22-25 . On this occasion in John 6 the disciples are alone, Jesus had remained behind. The storm brewed up and as they were battling to sail through it, they look up and see Jesus walking on the sea, coming toward the boat and they were frightened.

Who wouldn’t be frightened in the midst of a storm out in a boat in the middle of the sea, we are told that because of the placement of the sea of Galilee, storms can come in an instant and can be pretty ferocious. 

I was once caught in the middle of a ferocious storm, but it was not out at sea, it was in the centre of the city of Manchester, it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had, it was near impossible to walk unless you were holding onto something, roofs were blowing off buildings, shop fronts were being destroyed, the glass from the bus shelters were being blown out and the scariest of all was watching the tall cranes the builders use rocking like crazy. But at least I could get into a building to shelter from it. Out in the middle of the sea, there was nowhere to go, battling to row, battling to keep the water out while at the same time trying to conquer their fear and remain hopeful the storm would subside and that you would eventually land safely at the other side.

But Jesus comes, and he speaks out to them ‘It is I do not be afraid’ and they were glad to take him on the boat and immediately the boat arrived to where they were going.

We will have all heard sermons built around this story, we all face storms, we all go through trying times, we all go through periods where our circumstances cause us to be afraid, cause fear to arise in our hearts. But unlike this story Jesus is never somewhere else, he never remains behind when he asks us or sends us somewhere, he comes with us. One song writer has put it this way, ‘Standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus’ We know what the song writer is intending to say, but in reality Jesus isn’t in the shadow, unless we have chosen to put him there! He is with us, he is alongside us, even more wonderful the Scripture says he is in us! (‘Christ in you the hope of glory’ Colossians 1:27) This should give us reassurance that whatever storms we face, whatever battles we have to fight through, whatever circumstances we encounter that cause us to fear, he is with us, he is alongside us and he is able to pick us up and to carry us through.

If you are going through a storm at this moment, if you feel that you are being tossed about on the tempestuous waves or battered by the hurricane force winds, look out for Jesus, allow him to step into you ‘boat’ and allow him to dispel the fear and to bring calm and peace.